It´s a must see and one of the best films of the year and one of the ages.
You´d think that Shindler´s List was the be all end all for holocaust films, but you´d be wrong.
Adrien Brody stars as Szpilman and should be up for any and all awards possible, he´s just amazing.
-- John Venable, SUPERCALA.COM
"It is hard not to be especially grateful for freedom after a film like this."
-- Wendy Weinstein, FILM JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL
"Refined and reserved but still haunting...one of the finer non-documentary films yet made about the deepest stain on twentieth-century history."
-- Frank Swietek, ONE GUY'S OPINION
"Polanski has found the perfect material with which to address his own World War II experience in his signature style."
-- Bob Strauss, LOS ANGELES DAILY NEWS
"There is no denying the power of Polanski's film..."
-- Dennis Schwartz, OZUS' WORLD MOVIE REVIEWS
"Jamás -jamás- podrán escuchar el Nocturno en D menor de Chopin sin recordar a este pianista y su historia... Una obra maestra."
-- Alex Ramirez, CINENGANOS
"Roman Polanski’s first great work in over 20 years, The Pianist examines a terrible time in world history with a personal eye, remarkably subtle and complex given that the film is centered on the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto."
-- David Poland, HOT BUTTON
"The most moving and powerfully crafted film I've seen all year ... focused, absolutely devoid of sentimentality, and honest."
-- Jeffrey Overstreet, LOOKING CLOSER
"A worthy Holocaust drama and a welcome return to form for Roman Polanski."
-- Mark Keizer, BOXOFFICE MAGAZINE
"Adrien Brody proves that Tom Hanks is not the only actor who can hold the screen alone for a prolonged period of time."
-- Harvey S. Karten, COMPUSERVE
"It's an unforgettable story, and a welcome return to form for Polanksi."
-- Justin Hartung, CITYSEARCH
"A different and emotionally reserved type of survival story -- a film less about refracting all of World War II through the specific conditions of one man, and more about that man lost in its midst."
-- Brent Simon, ENTERTAINMENT TODAY
"Brody made me understand his character's torment but more in a clinical way than in an emotional one. Polanski needed just a bit more depth in his protagonist."
-- Steve Rhodes, STEVE RHODES' INTERNET REVIEWS
"Wladyslaw's isolation is the only thing that really separates The Pianist from the scores of other films with similar content."
-- Jon Popick, PLANET SICK-BOY
"This is the story of someone who lived to tell an unspeakable tale, told by someone with stories enough to do justice to its integrity."
-- Geoff Pevere, TORONTO STAR
"A film not so much about horror than about surviving horror, The Pianist is an amazingly brilliant addition to the film documentation of the Holocaust."
-- Jimmy O, FILM SNOBS
"Slow, But Rewarding Holocaust Tale With Brody Stealing The Show. A Fine Film From Polanski That Could've Used A Bit More Of An Emotional Core."
-- James E. Laczkowski, HOLLYWOOD BITCHSLAP
"It is a harsh—but incredibly moving—piece of filmmaking, a work of genuine depth and sensibility that never loses its focus or compromises its integrity."
-- David Keyes, DAVID KEYES' CINEMA 2000
"It is a tale full of silent fury, a profound portrait of survival within the most dire of conditions."
-- Darrin Keene, FILM THREAT
"Authentic war movie featuring an impressive showing by lead Adrien Brody."
-- JoBlo, JOBLO'S MOVIE EMPORIUM
"Proceed with caution."
-- Phil Hall, FILM THREATot Pick
"It will break your heart many times over."
-- Ella Taylor, L.A. WEEKLY
"In The Pianist, Polanski is saying what he has long wanted to say, confronting the roots of his own preoccupations and obsessions, and he allows nothing to get in the way."
-- Charles Taylor, SALON.COM
"One of the very few nondocumentary movies about Jewish life and death under the Nazis that can be called definitive."
-- A.O. Scott, NEW YORK TIMES
"Mr. Polanski is in his element here: alone, abandoned, but still consoled by his art, which is more than he has ever revealed before about the source of his spiritual survival."
-- Andrew Sarris, NEW YORK OBSERVER
"This is one of Polanski's best films."
-- Richard Roeper, EBERT & ROEPER
"A great film of integrity and unforgettable power that leaves you breathless with gratitude."
-- Rex Reed, NEW YORK OBSERVER
"After directing five clunkers in a row, Roman Polanski returns to form with the highly personal Holocaust drama The Pianist."
-- V.A. Musetto, NEW YORK POST
"With The Pianist, Polanski's strange genius serves Szpilman's remembrance and, in doing so, rescues his legacy from the blunder of much of the director's recent work."
-- Manohla Dargis, LOS ANGELES TIMES
"The Pianist is a dark film, but it also a triumph, a story not just of survival, but of the spirit prevailing."
-- Pam Grady, REEL.COM
"An unqualified success both dramatically and artistically."
-- Ken Fox, TV GUIDE'S MOVIE GUIDE
"Memorable as a showcase for Brody's superb talent."
-- Laura Bushell, BBCI FILMS
"One of the most straightforward views of survival that we've seen in this genre. It's not for everyone, but it is worth seeing."
-- Amit Asaravala, FILMCRITIC.COM
"During its last hour, The Pianist achieves something that approaches near transcendence."
-- Ed Gonzalez, SLANT MAGAZINE
"THE PIANIST is Polanski’s most personal work to date, and perhaps because of that, Polanski seems to have rediscovered the cinematic voice he had as a young man."
-- Carlo Cavagna, ABOUTFILM.COM
"Shows how the kindness of several courageous individuals and one surprising stranger help a worn-out and frightened Jew survive the ordeals of Warsaw during World War II."
-- Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, SPIRITUALITY AND HEALTH
"Not since 1974's Chinatown has Polanski reached such dramatic heights."
-- James Berardinelli, JAMES BERARDINELLI'S REELVIEWS
"In concentrating on one man's experience, The Pianist offers an unusually clear picture of the war and the times."
-- Liz Braun, JAM! MOVIES
"It may not be the prettiest movie out there, but it's definitely worth seeing."
-- E! ONLINE

...it is Polanski's mastery that makes this movie unforgettable...
...With The Pianist, Roman Polanski has not only given us the most recent motion picture to remind future generations of what happened under Hitler's regime, but he has also provided us with hope that his own career, after numerous dead-ends, may finally be back on track.
--© 2002 James Berardinelli

Pianist plays tune of horror
The Pianist is a story told with the sort of detail that takes large historical truths and gives them personal, emotional impact. Polanski manages an understated style that keeps Szpilman fully human even as it underlines the extreme horror of what the man experiences.
--By LIZ BRAUN -- Toronto Sun

Rendered in harrowing detail, without completely demonising every German character, "The Pianist" rivals "Schindler's List" in terms of detailing the experiences of Jews during WWII. And in terms of production design it must also be one of the most accurately rendered.
n an understated and tremendously powerful performance, Adrien Brody undergoes a dramatic transformation in his physical appearance.
He displays an emotional range capable of expressing Szpilman's emotions through little dialogue. Brody's performance is astounding.
While "The Pianist" is very much Polanski's return to form, it's most memorable as a showcase for Brody's superb talent.
-- Laura Bushell, BBCi Films

The Pianist is one of the best Holocaust movies ever made.
--Carlo Cavagna, AboutFilm.com

Therein lies the brilliance and the flaw of The Pianist. As a Holocaust film, it is extraordinary in its ability to put one of a mind of the blitzed: so deadened by the suddenness and meaninglessness of violence that the threat of it is at once a constant horror and no longer a surprise.
-- Walter Chaw, Film Freak Central

There’s no reason to stop making films about the Holocaust simply because the story has been told so many times. This is a part of our human history we can and should never forget, and as long as there are new and different voices out there to tell the story, it will never be forgotten. The Pianist is lacking that voice but the power of the tale still remains. As extraordinary as Wladyslaw Szpilman’s story is, I’m certain the man who lived to tell it was equally extraordinary.
-Mark Dujsik, Mark Reviews Movies

Awarded the coveted Palm d'Or at the 2002 Cannes Festival, Polanski's film is an unqualified success both dramatically and artistically — Pawel Edelman's cinematography is extraordinary, and the emptying of the ghetto and its haunting aftermath must surely rank among the most powerful sequences in recent cinema. (In English and German, with English subtitles.)
— Ken Fox Guide's Movie Guide

The Pianist is a dark film, but it also a triumph, a story not just of survival, but of the spirit prevailing. Whatever this work means to Polanski personally, it is also his finest film since Chinatown. It's been nearly 30 years since he achieved that kind of excellence, but it was worth the wait.
-Pam Grady, Reel.com

But what's most interesting about "The Pianist" is that Polanksi never lets the film get too sentimental. Instead, he shines a brutally harsh light on the devastation, putting viewers right in Szpilman's shoes as he scrambles through the ruins of Warsaw searching for crumbs of food. It's an unforgettable story, and a welcome return to form for Polanksi.
-Justin Hartung, Citysearch

Paced by Polanski with restraint which only strengthens the
power of the scenes of overt violence, "The Pianist" not only
affords Brody the strong possbiility of an Oscar nomination but
continues Polanski's reputation as a film maker who can evoke
audience fears not simply from stories of the supernatural but from
the all-too-frequent horrors that arise from our own, civilized world.
- Harvey S. Karten, Compuserve

Does the world need another Holocaust film? When the director is Roman Polanski, the answer is an unequivocal “yes."
...Comparisons to “Schindler’s List” will undoubtedly fly from the mouths of naysayers, with the claim that Spielberg’s been there, done that. There’s a significant difference between the two films, however. Remember the ending of “Schindler’s List” where Oskar Schindler (as played by Liam Neeson) tells his Jewish factory workers to thank themselves instead of him? It’s an open acknowledgement that Schindler, not his suffering workers, has been the focal point of the film.
-- Darrin Keene, Film Threat

Polanski's success with "The Pianist" keeps him in company with the likes of Martin Scorcese and Steven Spielberg as one of our most gifted living movie directors. And like the most uplifting motion pictures of our time, this isn't a movie formulated on facades or manipulations, but realistic intentions that ultimately expose the spirit and endurance of the human soul. To call the result one of the year's most impressive cinematic compositions would not completely do it justice.
-- David Keyes, David Keyes' Cinema 2000

Roman Polanski's drama The Pianist, based on the memoir of a Polish Jewish pianist, Wladyslaw Szpilman, is a very personal view of the Holocaust, and its power comes from the partiality of its perspective.
-- Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

Polanski draws us into the perspective and the heart of a passionate artist who watches his family and his world crumble, and who clings to art for hope and sustenance during the world's worst nightmare. It's the most impacting work on the Holocaust I have ever seen ... yes, even more powerful and significant than Schindler's List.
Schindler’s List endures as a historical overview of the Holocaust. It shows us the tragedy and horror from all angles, like a collection of photographs and brief testimonies. Spielberg uses every trick in the book, artful and artificial, to make us feel the pain of those who suffered. For most of the film, he tries clinical re-creations; by the end he has given in to his trademark sentimentality, offering emotional breakdowns and simple platitudes. As if realizing he has lost his grip on reality, he thrusts real-live survivors in our face, to make sure we understand that this really happened. It's an effective and at times profound work, but its flaws show more and more with age.
By comparison, Roman Polanski’s The Pianist, based on Ronald Harwood screenplay of Wladyslaw Szpilman’s journals, is focused, absolutely devoid of sentimentality, and honest. Instead of trying to shove the whole abhorrent affair down our throats, Polanski grounds his story in the experience of one man, and lets us experience the Holocaust as people really did -- in a state of semi-denial until the only way to survive was grovel, scrounge, rebel, or run. This film, the most moving and powerfully crafted film I've seen all year, will offer you a shocking portrayal of how the Jews in Warsaw found themselves trapped in an irrational and unstoppable death machine. It will also cause you to stop and think about the riches we take for granted: family, food, music, freedom.
-- Jeffrey Overstreet, Looking Closer

It is this sense of insinuating atrocity that makes The Pianist not only such a distinctive account of Szpilman's experiences, but a Holocaust movie with a potently Polanskian sensibility.
Skirting both the melodramatic, self-congratulatory blockbusterism of Schindler's List and the retroactive outrage of Claude Lanzmann or Marcel Ophuls, the movie unfolds with an almost reportorial matter-of-factness.
The impression it so successfully conveys is that of an on-the-ground eyewitness account, replete with a genuinely unsettling tone of almost bland inevitability.
-- Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star

The Pianist grew on me, scene after scene after scene, right though the closing credits that saw the exit of only two of the 80 some-odd people in the screening I attended. And after looking at the imdb’s list of 191 titles that have “holocaust” as a keyword, I think it’s safe to say that The Pianist is the best drama about the Jewish Holocaust that I have ever seen. And there have been some great films.
...All I know right now is that it snuck up on me and found a place in my soul by being unrelentingly humane and viciously true and… beyond words.
-- David Poland, The Hot Button

a great film of integrity and unforgettable power that leaves you breathless with gratitude.
-- Rex Reed, The New York Observer

Brody's subtle performance requiring little dialogue but much restraint is distinguished by his honest effort and lack of sentimentality he brings to the role; it was the best performance I saw this year. One has the feeling after watching the emaciated pianist hunker down, that he's the last civilized person left on the planet. The film had a stunning visual sense of the isolation and human depravity that were linked together with the pervasive mood of hopelessness displayed by the pianist. In the film's last shot, Wladyslaw is accorded an ovation by the Polish people after his piano recital. It took the film a long time to get to that point (148 minutes), but in an absurdly odd way I began to feel what the pianist was going through and how his music was the only sustaining force that kept him sane in such terrible times. The film felt like a grind, but I don't mean that as necessarily a bad thing as much as I mean that it provoked thought and penetrated inside one's own sense of human values and was more of an educational experience than anything else. For those who venture to see such a demanding work, the reward could be an unforgettable experience that allows you to see something else about the Holocaust just when you thought you saw it all.
-- Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Roman Polanski's wrenching World War II magnum opus confronts the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto and the moral complexities of war -- and asserts the power of art, just maybe, to triumph over nihilism.
-- Charles Taylor, Salon.com