THE PIANIST is a film that takes a dark and disturbing subject matter - the persecution of the Warsaw Jews by Nazis in the Second World War - and turns it into a spellbinding, enthralling journey of a movie. Roman Polanski could easily have made this maudlin and sentimental like Spielberg's SCHINDLER'S LIST, but he thankfully avoids that temptation and the result is the much better movie of the two.

This film contains a documentary-style realism in its depiction of the various atrocities carried out by the uncaring Germans. It gets dark and darker as it goes on, and yet the viewer is unable to tear his eyes off the screen because it's all so well-realised and realistic. Adrien Brody plays the eyes and ears of the viewer in a subdued manner, yet delivers his greatest and most believable performance as a result. The story has a lot of darkness and violence, but Polanski's expert camera-work and endless style stops the subject matter ever becoming depressing; instead there's enough tension to keep you involved and wanting to find out what's next. Things build to a suitably touching and poignant climax that doesn't disappoint.

It's 1939 Warsaw. Wladyslaw Szpilman (Adrien Brody) is a Jew and a pianist on the radio. He falls for Polish girl Dorota. The Germans invade and the Szpilman family expects to live through another war. However, their lives slowly deteriorate as government decrees force them into the Jewish ghetto. Itzak Heller tries to recruit Wlad and his brother Henryk into the Jewish police but they refuse. As his family is put on trains, Wlad is pulled out by Itzak. Wlad joins the resistance and smuggles in material. He sneaks out and finds friends who help to hide him. He witnesses the Germans battling their way into the ghetto from his hiding place. He finds help from Dorota who is now married and pregnant. From his hiding place, he witnesses the start of the Warsaw uprising.

Roman Polanski delivers a depiction of a survivor of the Holocaust. He is more or less passive for too long until pushed. He survives due to kindness of others. He does not fight not due some moral stand but rather a lack of proactive heroism. It's a rather disengaging trait although I can see Polanski's point of view. The other annoying aspect is his surprise and constant reaction to the shocking inhumanity. None of this makes him less realistic. In many ways, he's a very human character and flawed not in any evil ways. It doesn't make him an easy, or appealing character. The world is well constructed. The most compelling scene is actually when the family is stuck waiting out in the sun for the train. The train has been done every time but to wait in a holding pen is more unusual. This is a great Holocaust movie but the leading character is unusually not so appealing.

There have been so many fine films that deal with the Holocaust. Each shows the atrocities of the Germans, their random cruelty, their ruthlessness. This film has all that, but it also has Adrien Brody. This is a film that gets us inside the human being, the person who must run, whose iron will propels him forward. The thing is, though, he is not necessarily a hero in the traditional sense. We sense the fatigue of his character as he runs from situation to situation, just trying to stay alive. There are good people around him, many are good Germans. While we watch people shot in the head, beaten to the ground, mutilated, we see him moving aimlessly toward something (the thing is we don't know what that something is). He hears rumors about the Russians liberating Poland but he can't let up for a second. He watches as the underground makes sacrifice after sacrifice, their building burned, their people sent up in flames. He sees himself as a coward. He thinks about being dead, but his will to live drives him on. The title, of course, is him--the pianist--a nationally known classical pianist, suddenly dehumanized. We see his weaknesses and his strengths. We also get a more balanced though terrifying view of the situation in the Polish ghetto. This is a film we should all see.