The Thief Lord

The Thief Lord was released in my country a couple of months ago and for some reason this movie almost immediately caught my attention. A German family adventure/fantasy movie with English language and with English actors – all of that seemed quite unusual and therefore interesting to me. At the same time I never heard of Cornelia Funke's novel of the same name so I didn't know exactly what to expect from the movie.

I watched Thief Lord today and actually I liked it. It was really fascinating to see something fresh and different from typical and often annoying Hollywood family stuff. For young ones Thief Lord is an enjoyable family adventure with talented young cast against the background of one of the most beautiful cities in the whole world, Venice. For grown-ups besides that it's a story of bitter loneliness and sometimes misunderstanding which unite most of the characters. Two brothers, fifteen years old Prosper and much younger Bo, after death of their parents are separated. The younger goes to the old childless relatives and Prosper has been sent to an orphanage. But brothers can't live without each other and for six years old Bo Prosper is the only person who cares about him and loves him so much. Desperate, they run away. They have nowhere to go in the whole world and they are heading to Venice, the city that their mother loved so much. But the city is not welcome to runaways with no money and only unexpected help of a mysterious boy, who called himself Thief Lord and saves them from more troubles. Bo and Prosper join him and his team of orphans who find a refuge in a deserted movie theater. Soon our heroes learn that ancient city is full of surprises and what's is more that some strange magical things can happen there. They become involved into rather unexpected events and lives of different characters collide in Venice. We meet a lonely wife and husband, who also heading to Venice, trying to find a runaway child, who was merely a way to suppress their own loneliness, a lonely detective, who was hired to find Bo and some other characters. However, finally for many of our heroes resolution salvation of their personal problems will come in a rather unexpected way for each other.

But the loneliest and most suffering from that is mysterious Thief Lord himself who is trying to keep his secrets inside of him. This key character is playing by Rollo Weeks, who looks very good in his rather complicated part. Both Aaron Johnson (Prosper) and Jasper Harris also left very positive impression from their acting, self-reliance and naturalness. Despite rather short running time of the movie the development of most main characters is not bad. We know enough about them to feel sympathy or antipathy to them and we are not indifferent to them, which is very important for such a story. The acting among adult cast was also not bad with most memorable and likable performance from Jim Carter as Victor.

Thief Lord in the beginning the movie is fast paced and probably a little too short but mostly it's exciting well-filmed film with interesting and original story. The soundtrack one it's own looked very good and it's a very good addition to visual part even if sometimes the music is abstracted from what we saw on screen. And let me to say that visuals for such low-budgeted production were also not too bad. If you are looking for a good non-American family adventure film on English language as an alternative for Hollywood production featuring talented cast, probably you would be unable to find better choice than Thief Lord. Also it's worth to notice that the movie mostly successfully avoids typical and clichéd for American family films crude humor and language.

I know possibly I'm too generous and surely Thief Lord is not a flawless masterpiece but I rated it 9 out of 10. Unfortunately such enjoyable and beautifully shot family movies so rarely appear in our movie theaters or video stores.

And the last one thing that I almost forgot to mention. The title song "Orphan skies" is pretty cool and I liked it very much.

I was expecting it to be either really good, or really bad, but it wasn't actually either. It was just...good. I really liked it, but it's not going to be one of my favorites or anything. The actors were WONDERFUL, but the movie seemed kind of rushed. Many of the best parts in the book were barely seen in the movie, and the whole thing would have been very confusing if I hadn't read the book. They didn't describe many of the facts well, but because I had read it, I knew what was going on. It was pretty faithful to the book (compared to things like Harry Potter and LotR) and was overall very enjoyable. The main thing it was missing was Cornelia Funke's wonderful writing style, but...well...it's a movie. It's probably as good as it could have been. :) Overall, 7.5 stars. I recommend this movie to everyone of all ages, even if you don't like fantasy stories like Harry Potter, but only as long as you read the best-selling book first.

After finishing reading the book, I heard about the movie coming out in 2006. Of course I didn't expect much, only because books being turned into movies turn out bad. But i have say, this movie was probably the best movie i have seen in many years. This movie just blew me, and not only me, but my family away. The film was amazingly detailed and explained the character very well. The effects for this movie were just magical. This film isn't the blockbuster of the year, but this movie did have amazing acting, the effects were really well done for a low-budget movie. And, the most important, it did stay very true to the book and left very little out. Looking back on some book/movies, they leave a lot out and some of the movies don't turn out that great for some people. But this movie left out very little, and a lot of people will be very pleased. The movie overall will get a 10/10 because Cornelia Funke is just an extremely amazing writer, and the movie was just so magical and exciting, all people of any age will love it. And don't forget to catch Cornelia's soon to be made into a movie, Inkheart.

Cornelia Funke's novel has been turned into a very good "family" film. How I hate to use that term but unfortunately its true. This is the story of a couple of orphans who high tail it to Venice in search of the magic that their mother always spoke about. Their they fall in with the "Thief Lord" and his band of orphans who steal in order to survive.

This is a really good movie. I really do like it a great deal. The film is well acted by all concerned. It has great effects and is extremely well made in pretty much every area. And that is what was wrong with the film, it looks too good. Everything is picture perfect and neat. I don't think I've ever seen a film where Venice ever looked this neat and clean. It takes the film out of being very real to being a a bit of lets put on a show. Its a grand and very enjoyable show, but its a show who's technical excellence keeps you at arms distance. Maybe its just a bit of disappointment on my part, I wanted to fall into this film and enjoy it from on the inside, instead I was forced to see it through a looking glass of picture perfect perfection.

Still see this movie. If you have kids sit them down and show them this movie, it will keep everyone entertained. Its a film that people should be seeing and talking about since its too good to have get lost and disappear.

7.5 out of 10.

I loved the book, so naturally I wanted an accurate adaptation. The movie was a wonderful translation from book to film although of course there were a few minor details that I was disappointed about. It was also very, very good for a low budget movie. The characters were just as lovable, if not more, on screen as they were in the book. The acting was good for the most part although at times it could get a little dull, and at times a tad overdone, but still it was completely believable. Some parts were quite touching and others were hilariously funny. There was just the right balance of humor and seriousness to make it grounded and interesting at the same time. It was creatively done and very entertaining. And I would still recommend it to you if you haven't read the book.