The Pianist

Among the criticisms leveled at The Pianist is the suggestion that it is just another piece of cynical manipulation of viewers' emotions. Nothing could be further from the truth. The film doesn't adhere to Oscar-fodder blueprints. Quite the contrary, it deserved its acclaim: it is a personal and honest story without trace of attention-seeking controversy or contrived dramatic embellishments. This is not Schindler's List. It leaves your heartstrings and the concentration camps alone and lets you sit in on the experience of a single quietly contemplative individual, the ivory-tickling Jewish Pole Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody).

As the Nazis roll into town, Szpilman's comfortable family unit loses all the human perks it took for granted, a series of transitions that in practice seem incremental but in their impact take you by surprise. This is a bigger and more complex role to those to which Brody was previously accustomed, but Roman Polanski should be congratulated for sparing us any misplaced rhetoric or majestic monologues. The emphasis is firmly on the more subtle elements of the script: Brody's eyes tell us more about his suffering than anything he says. The effect is emoting, inevitably, but not exaggerated by anyone's standards, and certainly not overblown. One imagines that Polanski's confidence in the material encouraged him to let the tragedy speak for itself without erecting any neon signs.

The story isn't mind-blowing at this stage in history. We all know what happened, and most of us have come to terms with it, but that doesn't make the events any less fascinating as they unravel on an intimate level. Great efforts are made to limit the action to one town, a sufficient and economical playing field for the proceedings that lends the film a tight and tense urgency. The fact that the protagonist is a talented musician is not overplayed, and although it isn't vital to our acceptance of Szpilman as our hero, it adds an intriguing dimension to the tale and some beautiful music to the soundtrack. Besides, it's a true story.

If anyone finds The Pianist tiresome or derivative, it is the fault of indifference towards the last century's highest profile tragedy, and not the fault of the filmmaker, whose personal WW2 experiences pay off handsomely. Polanski has created a solid and engaging account of something that, besides being relevant to the world we inhabit today, is also timeless in its relevance to the extremities of human endurance.