Looooong movie !!!!

Rating: Null/10 (11 August 2003)

One should be careful not to point a critical finger at movies with such an ever necessary subject as the Holocaust or the unbelievable suffering of those who had the misfortune to experience it.
The Pianist is however a painstakingly long odyssé of one Jewish mans life during the painful 6 years of German occupation of Poland.
If you are looking for plot and eventful narration - look somewhere else. If you are looking for insight and knowledge of the psychological mechanisms, that kept the people involved afloat (or sinking) - look somewhere else. If you are looking for insight or knowledge of the traumas - look somewhere else.
This movies has a formidable ability to avoid either and therefore ends up as a distant and very, very long display of horror upon horror.
Although the acting and scenery is impeccable, the movie never moves you deeply. It will definitely frighten and shock you - shame on you if it doesn't - but the portrait of the persons involved does never manifest itself sufficiently to occupy your heart.
Holocaust must definitely never be forgotten and the tale can never be told too often. But given the opportunity to do so, I wish that Mr. Polanski had used his unquestioned genious to suck us all in and left us with a bleeding heart and not just with a series of events on our inner eyes.