Pianist, The

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Polanski, himself a survivor of Nazi-occupied Poland, has created a near-masterpiece.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

There are three Poles in The Pianist -- Szpilman, Polanski, and Frederic Chopin. Of the three, fittingly, Chopin speaks the loudest.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Roman Polanski's new movie may be the greatest historical film centered on an enigmatic character since Lawrence of Arabia.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

The director seems to be saying that, for survivors, art may be a way back to our finer selves -- extraordinary.

Slate David Edelstein

The best film of 2002.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

A great movie on a powerful, essential subject -- the Holocaust years in Poland -- directed with such artistry and skill that, as we watch, the barriers of the screen seem to melt away.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

One of the great Holocaust films.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

A beautiful story, told in measured cadences by a master of old-timey narrative compression and expression.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

It's no wonder that Polanski, himself an artist who has survived a series of nightmares, should tell it so naturally and powerfully.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The result is a movie, and Cannes Palme d'Or winner, of riveting power and sadness, a great match of film and filmmaker -- and star, too.

Dallas Observer Andy Klein

There have been other films dealing with the Jewish ghettos during the Nazi occupation of Poland -- some very good -- but The Pianist, the latest feature from Roman Polanski, may be the best.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The results are masterful, admirably unsentimental, and never boring, if also a little stodgy.

Newsweek David Ansen

This powerful, precision-made movie offers hope as well -- an act of kindness from a German officer that saves the pianist’s life, the music that sustains his soul.

Los Angeles Times Manohla Dargis

Never before has a fiction film so clearly and to such devastating effect laid out the calculation of the Nazi machinery of death and its irrationality.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Polanski, who was a Jewish child in Krakow when the Germans arrived in September 1939, presents Szpilman's story with bleak, acid humor and with a ruthless objectivity that encompasses both cynicism and compassion.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

Polanski’s strongest and most personally felt movie.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Szpilman takes to performing sonatas in thin air, eyes closed, those jittery fingers stroking nothing but air. It's a wonderful moment in a wonderful, ghastly film, and one of the most moving arguments for the redemptive powers of art ever made.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

If The Pianist isn't quite as devastating as "Schindler's List" -- the movie with which all other Holocaust movies must be compared -- it's because Polanski isn't interested in an expansive view of the war.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

After an hour, The Pianist stops being the Holocaust movie and becomes a Holocaust movie.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Polanski's view of life is like that of Greek tragedy, with the same cold comfort that tragedy implies; from the larger perspective which art gives us, we know even horrors eventually pass.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The power of the arts to transcend cultural differences is presumably what moves the German to spare Szpilman, and, perhaps, is the key to Polanski's salvation as well.

USA Today Mike Clark

With this 2002 Cannes Film Festival best-picture winner, Polanski skips the quirky flourishes and simply brings history to life.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

To the extent that movies bear the residue of their filmmakers' autobiographies, I found The Pianist particularly compelling.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The closing scenes of the movie involve Szpilman's confrontation with a German captain named Wilm Hosenfeld -- Polanski's direction of this scene, his use of pause and nuance, is masterful.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Crafted without a whiff of melodrama, this motion picture takes a steady, unflinching look at the plight of Jews in Warsaw.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Nothing can detract from the film as a portrait of hell so shattering it's impossible to shake.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Polanski, wisely, doesn't interpret or explain. He seems to have decided that in the face of such meticulously planned horror, the best one can do is get the details right.

Time Richard Schickel

A raw, unblinking film. It teaches that in dire circumstances our only obligation is to our own survival; all else -- culture, ideology, even love -- is a dispensable luxury.

Film Threat Darrin Keene

Does the world need another Holocaust film? When the director is Roman Polanski, the answer is an unequivocal “yes."

TV Guide Ken Fox

Polanski's film is an unqualified success both dramatically and artistically.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

To name only one of its predecessors -- for me, the towering one -- doesn't "Schindler's List" do everything that Polanski achieves and more?

New York Post V.A. Musetto

The Pianist recalls "Schindler's List," even down to its weakness: Just as Spielberg's film turned sentimental in its final half hour, Polanski's work, too, has a schmaltz coda. But that doesn't make The Pianist any less effective.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Has a sense of emotional urgency and deep-dwelling grief.

The New Yorker David Denby

The movie is about preservation and restoration and the power of art. But with what gain in knowledge? It's as if Szpilman had no soul, and no will, apart from an endless desire to tickle the keys. [13 January 2003, p. 90]

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Suffers from over-explanation. The movie maintains tremendous momentum through the Szpilman family's deportation. The second half is another story.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Through Brody's remarkably controlled, self-effacing performance, Polanski succeeds in making his hero an invisible man, but the sights he conjures are surprisingly artless and ordinary, familiar from a dozen other Holocaust dramas. Among the casualties in The Pianist is a great director's imagination.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

Offers nothing new. It's actually one of Polanski's more conventional films and, ultimately, it's hard to recommend it with a clear conscience.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Astonishing visually and problematic dramatically.

Film Threat Phil Hall

At the risk of being called an anti-Semite, I would like to propose a moratorium on Holocaust movies -- While it would be crass to discount the importance of the subject, at the same time one has to admit there is some degree of excess going on here.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Surprisingly lacks a feeling of personal urgency and insight that would have made it a distinctive, even unique contribution to the considerable number of films that deal with the war in general and Holocaust in particular.