Polanski tries but ultimately fails

Rating: 7/10 (29 January 2003)

The horror of the Warsaw ghettos and the untold misery inflicted on many thousands of Poles by the Nazis, is indeed a dark part of world history, and Polanski attempts to portray the effect of such horror in this film. However, Brody fails to give his character real emotional depth and the story fails to deliver any real insight into the mind of the pianist Szpilman. Giants of the English stage lend a helping hand and Lipman and Finlay give good if a little caricatured performances. All in all though, this film is highly watchable as it tells the story of how different people coped with the Nazi horrors, some more valiantly than others.