Polanski's dormant talents blossom in this screen adaptation

Rating: 10/10 (25 December 2002)

Mr. Polanski has been investigating other realms for a few years now, with some head-rearing during The Ninth Gate and Bitter Moon, though the grand genius has been muffled in those tales. Here, Mr. Polanski's unique cinematic vision erupts in dangerous imagery as only he can bring it to the screen. The scene where the man in the wheelchair is thrown from the window loudly echoes Trelkowski's fall(s) in The Tenant. Polanski functions at his best when working with an 'outsider' tale and here has a protagonist who is an outsider in every sense, from the first frame to the last. Alone in the studio with his piano, a sole individual inside his tight family, and alone in Warsaw, Adrian Brody's portrayal of Wladislaw Szpilman's true outsider offers Polanski the method to achieve his strong telling of the solitary individual. I will never forget the bent-over death contortions of the female fighter in the streets, Brody's pain at losing him family on a train bound for Treblinka. Mr. Polanski, thank you for your work, and for your dynamic telling of a little-understood period of history. Bravo!