The Thief Lord (film)

The Thief Lord is a 2006 British-German family drama film directed by Richard Claus. It is a joint production of Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., Future Films Limited, Comet Film, and Thema Production. The film is distributed by Warner Bros. The DVD was released on 14 March 2006 and the one-disc edition includes a theatrical trailer that ran in theatres in Europe and Mosca's cartoon from the film by itself. 
It was nominated for the 2006 World Soundtrack Awards, with Original Music by 
Nigel Clarke and Michael Csányi-Wills. The screenplay was written by Richard Claus and Daniel Musgrave, based on the 2000 novel of the same title, by German author Cornelia Funke.
The film follows two recently orphaned brothers, Bo (Jasper Harris) and Prosper (Aaron Johnson), dumped in the care of a cruel aunt and uncle, who escape their impending separation by running off to Venice. Hiding in the canals and alleyways of the city, the boys are befriended by a gang of young urchins and their enigmatic masked leader, the Thief Lord (Rollo Weeks). From their home base of an old cinema theatre, the children steal from the rich to support themselves and soon capture the interest of a bumbling detective. However, a greater threat to the children is something from a forgotten past: a beautiful magical treasure that can change the age of anyone who rides it.
Plot.
When Prosper and Boniface's parents die, their aunt Esther attempts to adopt five-year-old Bo (Jasper Harris) and plans to send 12-year-old Prosper (Aaron Johnson) away to boarding school. However, before they can separate the two boys Prosper takes Bo to Venice, the magical city about which their mother often told stories.
Once in Venice, the boys live on the streets, and the money Prosper brought quickly runs out. Bo becomes ill and Prosper is forced to resort to stealing cough medicine from a pharmacy. The boys are nearly caught and lose the rest of their food, but are rescued by the mysterious Thief Lord (Rollo Weeks). The Thief Lord, a mask-wearing teenager whose name is Scipio, invites the boys to come with him to his hideout, an abandoned cinema called the Stella. The Stella is also home to three orphaned children Scipio has rescued: Hornet (Alice Connor), Riccio (George MacKay) and Mosca (Lathaniel Dyer). They steal from stores and Venice's wealthy tourists, but the majority of their money comes from Scipio, who goes on mysterious raids and always brings back treasures. Unfortunately, Barbarossa – the sleazy antique dealer the children have to sell their stolen goods to – always cheats the children. Bo brags that Prosper "is great at selling things" and Prosper ends up getting Barbarossa to quintuple his asking price. Barbarossa tells Riccio and Prosper there is a client who needs something stolen and is willing to pay big money for it.
Meanwhile, the boys' aunt and uncle, Esther and Max Hartlieb (Carole Boyd and Bob Goody), have travelled to Venice to find their nephews and entreated the help of Victor Getz (Jim Carter). The inspector wanders across Prosper and Riccio in front of a pastry shop and chases the boys when they run away. However, he is distracted by a friend, Ida Spavento (Caroline Goodall), and loses the boys.
Back at the theatre, the children celebrate Prosper's success. Riccio tells Scipio about Barbarossa's customer and he decides to take the job.
After being persuaded by the others Scipio takes all of them with him to go and see the client, a mysterious man known only as the Conte (Geoffrey Hutchings). However he only lets Prosper and Mosca come to meet the client in person. The conte asks them to steal a wooden wing, a fragment from the long lost merry go round of the merciful sisters, for it he would pay fifty thousand euros.
While Scipio, Prosper and Mosca are preoccupied with the conte; Bo, Hornet and Riccio are forced to wait outside. While there Bo meets Victor Getz, who befriends him. While they are talking Bo accidentally lets slip that he lives in an abandoned cinema. Prosper and the others return and chase him off. While hiding in a mask shop, Scipio comes up with a plan to help the others escape. During which Victor Getz sees his face.
Scipio needs to go away for a few days so he asks the gang to stake out the mansion where the wing is kept. At the same time Victor Getz approaches Dottore Massimo (Robert Bathurst), owner of the Stella. While there he discovers that Scipio is not a poor orphan at all. He is the son of the rich Massimo. although Massimo asks Scipio help Victor get in, Scipio makes a break for it and manages to escape back to the Stella.
He tries to persuade the others to leave but instead they devise a plan to catch Getz. It works and Getz is soon their prisoner. When Scipio doesn't show up for stake out the next day, the others are confused. Getz (having been released by Mosca to help fix the projector) tells them what he had discovered. Not believing him the gang visit Massimo's mansion. There they find out the truth. That Scipio had lied to them and that all the 'loot' had come from the house. Riccio is the most upset out of all of them, feeling betrayed.
When they return to the Stella they find that Getz has escaped but gave them his 'word of honour' that he wouldn't reveal their location to anyone as long as he didn't hear of any break ins. However he had fixed the projector and they enjoyed a short film that Mosca has been working on for a long time. And, even though their morale after Scipio's betrayal was low, they decided to complete the bargain with the conte.
When the group decides to steal the wooden wing inside the house where it is supposed to be, they encounter Scipio but they refuse to work with him. While looking around, they also accidentally wake the owner of the house, Ida. After a confrontation, Ida agrees to let the group take the wing as long as they take her with them. After receiving word of the transaction, Scipio drives all of them on a boat to meet the Conte. The deal goes off without a hitch.
Unfortunately, Prop and Bo's persistent aunt and uncle do not believe Getz claims though he tells them he firmly believes the boys have left Venice to Corfu. To complicate matters, Barborossa (when he was unable to get information out of Prosper, Hornet, and Riccio) decides to take matters in his own hands taking police to the Stella, where they were able to take Hornet and Bo, who remained behind during the deal, and close down the Stella. When they return, Prosper and the others find that Hornet and Bo are gone, becoming worried that Getz has sold them out and decide to confront him. Getz helps them when they confront him they get a phone call from the aunt, discovering that Bo is when them and that Hornet was with the police. They also figure out that the money the Conte gave them is also fake, according to Getz.
Ida and Getz are able to get Hornet, whose real name is Catarina, out of the orphanage she had been left in, and Ida allowed the group to stay at her place. Scipio sneaks out from his father's mansion and sneaks into Ida's house and wakes Prosper later that night persuading him to come with him to the secret island where the Conte resides to ride the merry-go-round, which is said to have mystical powers to age or restore youth to the riders, to become adults and both get what they want.
Bo, who despises his aunt and uncle, sneaks out of the hotel that they are staying in and returns to the Stella, where Getz, after receiving a phone call from the aunt, finds him and brings him back to Ida's house. Meanwhile, the Conte, whose real name is Renzo, and his sister the Contessa are now children, around the same as Riccio and the others. They offer, after the others discover the money payment was fake, a ride on the merry-go-round as payment for being unable to truly pay them. However, only Scipio takes this offer and after riding, jumps off after being warned by Prosper, now an adult. When Barborossa appears, Scipio tricks him into using the ride, turning him into a young child and breaking it again.
Upon their return, Prosper is reunited with his younger brother. The older Scipio appoints himself as Getz's new partner in the detective field which the man does not object to. Barborossa after drinking himself to sleep is left alone as the children are reunited with each other at Ida's, while the adults step outside. The aunt and uncle, who had followed Getz take the opportunity to break into the house and take back Bo. Riccio, Prosper, and Mosca fend off the two adults while Hornet keeps Bo with her, but the children lose the upper hand until Scipio returns and holds the adults at gunpoint.
Taking the money they deserve from Barborossa's safe, Riccio and Mosca split it all between all of them and Scipio uses his share to buy the boys a boat and to establish bank accounts for the others. Victor, Ida, Prosper, Hornet, and Bo are on Scipio's old boat driving alongside them. Ida comments on how they would make a great family and how the kids don't have to leave. They decide to stay together as a new family.
Home media.
The DVD includes deleted scenes from the film.
Score.
The original score was performed by Nigel Clarke and Michael Csanyi Wills.
Reception.
The film has a 40% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Will Wade of Common Sense Media awarded the film four stars out of five. Neil Smith of the BBC awarded the film two stars out of five. Jo Berry of "Empire" awarded it two stars. Damon Smith of the "Bournemouth Daily Echo" awarded the film three stars. Sloan Freer of "Radio Times" awarded the film two stars out of five.