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The Pianist
Rated R
Playing at Ritz theaters
Three-and-a-half reels out of four
At two hours and 28 minutes, The Pianist, based on the real-life experiences of virtuoso Wladyslaw Szpilman during World War II, is not easy to sit through. But it would be no easier to sit through were it 90 minutes long.
Man’s inhumanity to man is seldom easy to watch, even in the safety of a movie theater. But for those brave enough to endure, The Pianist is much more than a reminder of man’s darker side. It is a beautifully realized testament to the ability of the human spirit to withstand in the face of adversity.
The movie begins in Warsaw in 1939, just as the Nazis are invading Poland. Szpilman is a Jewish classical pianist who makes a living playing on Polish radio. Once the Nazis take over Poland, the Szpilman family is subjected to the same degradations forced upon the German Jews. Soon, all of the Jews in Warsaw are herded into a ghetto to separate them from the other Poles. When the Nazis move everyone to concentration camps, Wladyslaw miraculously manages to escape, eventually spending the remainder of the war in hiding.
Director Roman Polanski has harnessed the power of the story by wisely letting it speak for itself. The musical score is used sparingly. There are no manipulative orchestral cues when the Nazis show up or when the story takes a dramatic turn.
The director knows no emotional reminders are necessary for the audience to react. But, of course, music — and the power it has over the soul — is part of what this movie is all about. One of the more powerful moments of the film comes almost at the very end and involves this theme.
A German officer discovers an emaciated, bearded Wladyslaw hiding out in an abandoned building in a decimated section of Warsaw. After finding out that Wladyslaw is a pianist, the officer requests a sampling of his talents, probably more out of curiosity than anything else. Once Wladyslaw starts playing, a look of sadness sweeps the officer’s face, as if to say, "I am not worthy in the company of such beauty. What have we done here?" Only music played in such a way would have the power and the audacity to elicit such a response.
Playing the role of the pianist, Adrien Brody has a face that is probably more familiar than his name. He embodies Wladyslaw in such a way that I cannot imagine any other actor playing the part. Here is a man who is both a Jew and an artist, two dangerous things to be at that point in history. Brody exudes sophistication yet a quiet sense of outrage that serves as a counterpart to the movie’s harsher images.
The Holocaust is one of those events about which you can never talk too much. We need to be reminded as often as possible that this happened and that it could happen again. Polanski has given us a movie that we will remember a long time after we leave the theater.
Undercover Brother
Rated PG-13
Available Tuesday
What could have been very offensive, if not totally stupid, turned out to be one of the more pleasant surprises of 2002. Based on a popular Internet cartoon, Undercover Brother follows the adventures of an urban superspy as he joins forces with the B.R.O.T.H.E.R.H.O.O.D. to foil The Man’s attempts to discredit a respected black presidential candidate (Billy Dee Williams). Director Malcolm D. Lee has pulled off a difficult trick by deriding racial stereotypes while getting major laughs out of them at the same time. Eddie Griffin heads a great cast that includes Chi McBride, Denise Richards and Aunjanue Ellis.
