The short version is that it's a story narrated by Death (Roger Allam) about a little girl named Liesel (Sophie Nélisse) who lives with her adoptive parents Hans (Geoffrey Rush) and Rosa (Emily Watson) in the late 1930s and into the 1940s during WWII in Germany. She attends a Nazi school with her best friend, Rudy (Nico Liersch), though neither are diehard "Hitler youth." She even ends up helping to hide a young Jewish man, Max (Ben Schnetzer), in her basement for a few years.
Rated PG-13 for some violence and intense depiction of thematic material, The Book Thief has virtually nothing objectionable in it, other than taking age appropriate-ness into consideration for the general subject matter (Nazis, WWII, etc) and the violence. For more information on content, check out the PluggedIn review.
I think this movie is leaving theaters soon, so if you're looking at a good drama, I would recommend taking the time to see this. I will warn you that it has some very sad parts...I got all teary eyed and sniffly at least three times, which isn't horribly unusual, though I can generally keep it together in the movie theater!
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I don't generally go to comedies in theater - mostly because there are few I find very funny, since they're often too crass or raunchy. There are exceptions, such as Frozen (Animated Comedy), RED2 (Action/Comedy), Silver Linings Playbook (Dramedy), Crazy, Stupid, Love (RomCom) and Midnight in Paris (Historical Dramedy). I was hesitant to see Delivery Man in theaters, but was in need of something funny, so I decided to give it a shot. The moral and ethical considerations regarding fertility clinics, IVF and male...donations...aside, Delivery Man was a better movie than I expected, bordering on a good one. Warning: there are some spoilers included below.
The basic premise is that "affable underachiever" David Wozniak (Vince Vaughn) made over 600 donations to a fertility clinic 20 years ago which, due to a clerical error, results in his being the biological father of 533 children...534 by the end of the movie, when his girlfriend gives birth to a healthy baby boy. He finds this out when 142 of his children sue the fertility clinic to find out the identity of "Starbuck," the pseudonym of their biological father. David then has to decide whether or not to forgo his anonymity in order to connect with his offspring.
A couple things...David's lawyer and best friend Brett (Chris Pratt) is a terrible person and should not be the parent of four children, single or otherwise. He tells David that he needs to talk his pregnant girlfriend, Emma (Cobie Smulders), into having an abortion, an idea that David quickly dismisses and can't believe that Brett would suggest such a thing. It's ironic and a little funny that Brett is played by Chris Pratt, who plays Andy in Parks and Recreation, a roll that is essentially the opposite of Brett.
After David is told that 142 of his children are trying to find him, he is given a packet with profiles they'd put together, in hopes of talking "Starbuck" into meeting them. He pulls a few out, one at a time, and decides to be a "guardian angel" for them, impacting their lives without their knowing he's their father.
SPOILER: You get to know about five or six of his children specifically - a life guard, a girl who works at Bloomingdales who's life he saves when she almost ODs on drugs, an aspiring actor and a clerk/bagger at a grocery store. He also spends time with a severely disabled, institutionalized son (Ryan?). As he helps each child he grows up a bit, but the selfless time he spends with his son who clearly has some form of muscular disability and can't speak, walk or even get himself in and out of bed, David finally begins to mature into an "adult."
While the basic subject matter is unfortunate, the overall message is hopeful and heartwarming. David's children are searching for him because they've felt a hole in their lives due to the absence of their father. He realizes that he needs to think of others, instead of just himself and that while being a father can be daunting, it is also very rewarding.
SPOILER: When David first shows up to meet Ryan, he's daunted by the severity of Ryan's disabilities. The nurse tells him to just go talk to him, that it will make Ryan's day. He sits down with him to watch TV, not really saying anything. He ends up spending the whole day with him, walking him around outside in the gardens of the institution and helps a nurse lift him into bed that evening. Later he takes Ryan to a gathering of his other 141 children - a giant picnic for the siblings to spend time getting to know each other. When he returns Ryan to the institution afterwards, he briefly gets a hint of a smile and you can tell in his eyes that he is happy. It's a beautiful moment that displays and highlights the personhood and intrinsic dignity of Ryan. It's a very touching scene and relationship between father and son.
Speaking of his son, when David and Emma go to her doctor's appointment for her first sonogram, David is mesmerized by the ability to see his tiny child on the screen, asking the technician about what he's seeing...the little head and tiny arms. Another sweet moment.
So there you have it. While not the comedy of the year, it has a certain amount of merit and was a decent secular attempt at showing the necessity of a father in his child's life and the importance of selflessness in a relationship, be it between a couple or parent to child.
Delivery Man is PG13, so has it's fair share of crudeness, which I'm sure is not hard to imagine given the subject matter. For more information on content, check out the PluggedIn's review.
Enjoy and happy viewing!
~ Katie
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