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Oliver Twist
Sony Pictures Entertainment


7.3

based on 36 reviews
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based on 26 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for disturbing images

Starring Ben Kingsley, Barney Clark, Jamie Foreman, Harry Eden, Leanne Rowe, Lewis Chase, Edward Hardwicke, and Jeremy Swift

Director Roman Polanski and writer Ronald Harwood re-imagine Charles Dickens' classic story of a young boy who gets involved with a gang of pickpockets in 19th Century London. (Sony Pictures Entertainment)

GENRE(S):	Drama \| Family/Kids
WRITTEN BY:	Ronald Harwood Charles Dickens (novel)
DIRECTED BY:	Roman Polanski
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: January 24, 2006 Theatrical: September 23, 2005
RUNNING TIME:	130 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	UK / Czech Republic / France / Italy

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

Altogether remarkable, a near-masterpiece.

100

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

A grounded and unusually matter-of-fact adaptation.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

This is that rare movie version of a great novel in which watching IS reading.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Polanski's film is visually exact and detailed without being too picturesque. This is not Ye Olde London, but Ye Harrowing London, teeming with life and dispute.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Despite the movie's several shortcomings, it leaves us sated. That's because, unlike Oliver's workhouse, it does give "some more" - more emotional breadth, more hardscrabble farce, and more haunting drama.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Yet precisely because this is by Roman Polanski, it's irresistible to read his sorrowful and seemingly classical take, from a filmmaker known as much for the schisms in his personal history as for the lurches in his work, as something much more personal and poignant.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

With tact and enthusiasm, Mr. Polanski grabs hold of a great book and rediscovers its true and enduring vitality.

Premiere Ryan Devlin

It's worth noting that Oliver Twist will likely be no Harry Potter at the box office, due in no small part to a lack of bombastic special effects and supernatural subplots, yet it's nearly as entertaining, even without the wizardry.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Dark, dank and violent, filled with terrifying scenes in which exploited children are beaten, shot or starving to death. In other words, it's just as Dickens wrote.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The movie about literature's luckiest orphan may teem with children, but it is not for them.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The movie is 23 minutes longer than the Lean version, yet it somehow seems much less evocative of the novel's immense scope and texture. And its Cockney accents are such a strain to understand that as much as a third of the dialogue is indecipherable.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Polanski honors the craft of classical storytelling and never flinches from the book's melodramatic extremes in portraying the horrors of poverty.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

Without Nancy and her demon lover, Polanski's Oliver Twist feels handsome, steady, and respectful; it has that touch of mummification which wins awards. But Dickens had murder in mind--women killed for their kindness, children for lack of food--and he wanted us to howl and hyperventilate. He asked for more.

Slate David Edelstein

The most effective counterweight to Polanski's fatalism is young Barney Clark, whose Oliver--although given to few words--is unshakably alive and responsive, even as he's being buffeted violently by forces beyond his control.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

Polanski's version, though handsomely realized, is a fairly conventional rendering of the novel that probably won't be counted among his best films.

Variety Todd McCarthy

A respectable literary adaptation but lacks dramatic urgency and intriguing undercurrents.

Village Voice Jessica Winter

Accomplished if lacking in urgency, this Oliver Twist (scripted by Ronald Harwood, who also wrote "The Pianist") showcases Polanski's proven gift for Dickensian caricature.

Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy

And that ultimately may be the problem with the Polanski version: by bringing Oliver forward, you push the drama backward.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

As in "The Pianist," Polanski is content to allow the film's narrative to evoke the emotions he wishes his audience to experience.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The result is an expertly made, very watchable film that's curiously lacking in impact. By Polanski standards that has to be a disappointment.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

As an introduction to the story for someone with no previous exposure to Oliver Twist, Polanski's movie is adequate.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Dickens was a sentimentalist, but even his happy endings are more nuanced than Polanski's brutal anti-sentimentalism.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

So what's surprising here isn't Polanski's choice of material but his utter failure to put any distinctive stamp on it.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

Filming on locations in Prague and in various Czech locations serving as London and the English countryside, the director delivers Dickens' tale with some style. The style, however, is that of a more cautious artist than Polanski is at his best.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Turns out to be far more interesting for grown-ups (the movie is probably too long, and too much, for little kids anyway).

USA Today Mike Clark

The big surprise in Polanski's Oliver is the lack of a discernible personal stamp, especially from such a directorial master of the macabre.

The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt

The biggest surprise in Roman Polanski's Oliver Twist is that there are no surprises.

The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann

None of the actors completely satisfies.

Dallas Observer Staff (Not credited)

A disappointingly flat, disjointed affair.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

It's unlikely audiences will be echoing a starving Oliver's most famous line: "Please, sir, I want some more."

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Two dramatic problems beset Roman Polanski's darkly handsome new film of the Dickens novel. The boy is as passive as ever, and bleak in the bargain -- instead of glowing like the Oliver of the musical, he takes light in -- while Ben Kingsley's Fagin and Jamie Foreman's Bill Sikes manage to make villainy a bit of a bore.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Kingsley seems determined to rescue this old chestnut of a character from Jewish stereotypes, but to what end? Oliver's boyhood has become worse than Dickensian - it's bland.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

Kingsley is one of very few lively things about Polanski's plodding, by-the-numbers Oliver Twist. And in this dreary setting, he comes across more as a desperate clown than a saving grace, which makes it all the more awkward that no one else is clowning along with him.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

Lacking energy and pace and enslaved by a ghastly score, this tepid movie left me longing alternately for David Lean's thrillingly grim 1948 masterpiece, and Carol Reed's chipper 1968 sing-along, with pretty tunes by Lionel Bart.

Film Threat Phil Hall

Handsomely produced but emotionally inert offering.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

The fact that there's nothing wrong with it -- that there's nary a scenic detail or scrap of dialogue or performance that isn't utterly on the nose -- is precisely what's wrong with it.

The average user rating for this movie is 7.3 (out of 10) based on 26 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

[Anonymous] gave it an8:
Reading the film critics, their main grip seems to be that "Oliver Twist" is not polenskian enough. How about Dickensian? Is anything wrong with a good narrative and lovely cinematography?

Manolis S. gave it a10:
A very personal take on Oliver Twist for Polanski, full of emotions, similar to the Pianist, where people look at life through windows, little Oliver on the road gathers all good and positive aspects of life through his adventures, near masterpiece, cinema at its best!!

Crysania gave it a4:
Lots of people who had reviewed this movie would compare it either with the book, adapted play or previous films. As I did not have any prior experience with any of those materials, I could do an unbias review. Boring was the verdict. Although the acting was good, the production lavish and good directing from Polanski, it failed to exhume any feelings I may have had for any of those characters except for a brief interlude at the end. Best to watch it with the sub-titles on.

Brian M. gave it a4:
I just couldn't get into it. None of the characters connected with me. I actually turned off the DVD about two-thirds of the way through, and never finished it, because I was bored.

Ilze S. gave it a2:
The movie is boring. The book is much better than this adaptation. I expected more, there are no pleasure in this film. It’s dark and slow. I don’t like Charles Dickens very much, but Great Expectations was good book and good movie. If the director was someone else, I think they could get much better result than this jam.

Emma C. gave it a6:
I think most of the viewers have seen this act out thing already.so when we saw this movie...we will like already know what will be going on in the next secne.so i may thought that to change some of the scene into better ones.

david b. gave it a9:
If you expect the singalong jollity that Oliver! delivered don't watch this version. This film offers the viewer a valid interpretation of life in those times. The sets are by no means polished stages, these come across as real muddy streets filled with violent drunkards and brutes. Not that there aren't any compassionate characters, for there are a few - but they are strikingly naive in their expectations of the behaviour of others. The actors in this film are not larger than the roles they are playing - and that adds to the realism. Kingsley's Fagin is not the lovable entertainer portrayed by Moody - but his is far more appropriate. I think Dickens would approve.

Oliver Twist Sony Pictures Entertainment

Oliver Twist
Sony Pictures Entertainment