Not the best but still damn good...

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2005)

If I was an inch more sensitive I would've cried my eyes out. This film is heart-wrenching, a real weepy about the true story of some polish pianist whose name I cannot spell nor pronounce, who was left all alone in the Warsaw ghetto during WW2. Adrien Brody is sublime as the pianist. A man inspired by music to survive, a man who hid and tried to live even though his family had been taken cruelly by the Nazis. The film is slow and some scene of the Nazi brutality is shocking and sad. One man, a disabled inferiority who tries to protest about what the Germans are doing as they storm his house is shocking, and the pianist sees it all. The poor man is lifted in his wheelchair and is thrown over the balcony of the high rise house he lived in. that is one of the more brutal scenes, and the film is well made as all the brutality is shown from the pianist's point of view, and to know that this guy witnessed all this is very disturbing. Roman Polanski shows flair in his fantastic directing and the overall film is well worth watching. The only problem is that the ending is rather ridiculous, whether it happened or not. The part where he emerges from the derelict house which one friendly German has helped him hide in in a German coat and is then promptly shot at (not hit) by a Russian liberation troop is made farcical when they say "Why are you wearing that coat?" and he replies "I'm cold" - that is quite ridiculous and this rather silly emphasis on the liberation isn't powerful enough. I think they should have left this out and had the scene fade to the scene where the pianist's German helper is being held in a POW camp thing. Another reason is that The Pianist is nowhere near as good as Schindler's List, no questions... It is good and deserves some good recognition and viewings from everyone. It is good and deserves an 8