Riveting, brilliant and not to be missed.

Rating: 9/10 (9 April 2003)

I saw this film about 6 weeks ago but neglected to comment due to time constraints. When it was over I turned to my companions and said "Adrien Brody just has to get an Oscar for this". His performance has to be one of the best ever captured on film. You are just there with him in his tortured existence hiding from the Nazis. This movie captures all of it - the claustrophobia of the walled commune, the desolate, terrifying railway stations and the desperate rebellion of the Poles against the Nazis when they held out for so long. Nothing is banging you over the head, it is all laid out so beautifully - the elegant middle class existence before the Nazis, then the harrowing work (if you were lucky), the cruelties, the hell that was Warsaw then. Roman Polanski has made a masterpiece and Adrien Brody is truly gifted and one to be watched. Extraordinary. 9 out of 10.