The Pianist
Focus Features | Release Date: December 27, 2002 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
85
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
37
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Washington PostDesson Thomson
Polanski, himself a survivor of Nazi-occupied Poland, has created a near-masterpiece. Read full review
100
Boston GlobeTy Burr
There are three Poles in The Pianist -- Szpilman, Polanski, and Frederic Chopin. Of the three, fittingly, Chopin speaks the loudest. Read full review
100
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
Roman Polanski's new movie may be the greatest historical film centered on an enigmatic character since Lawrence of Arabia. Read full review
100
SalonCharles Taylor
The director seems to be saying that, for survivors, art may be a way back to our finer selves -- extraordinary. Read full review
100
SlateDavid Edelstein
The best film of 2002. Read full review
100
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
A great movie on a powerful, essential subject -- the Holocaust years in Poland -- directed with such artistry and skill that, as we watch, the barriers of the screen seem to melt away. Read full review
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
One of the great Holocaust films. Read full review
100
Washington PostStephen Hunter
A beautiful story, told in measured cadences by a master of old-timey narrative compression and expression. Read full review
91
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
The result is a movie, and Cannes Palme d'Or winner, of riveting power and sadness, a great match of film and filmmaker -- and star, too. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
It's no wonder that Polanski, himself an artist who has survived a series of nightmares, should tell it so naturally and powerfully. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The results are masterful, admirably unsentimental, and never boring, if also a little stodgy. Read full review
90
NewsweekDavid Ansen
This powerful, precision-made movie offers hope as well -- an act of kindness from a German officer that saves the pianist’s life, the music that sustains his soul. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesManohla Dargis
Never before has a fiction film so clearly and to such devastating effect laid out the calculation of the Nazi machinery of death and its irrationality. Read full review
90
Dallas ObserverAndy Klein
There have been other films dealing with the Jewish ghettos during the Nazi occupation of Poland -- some very good -- but The Pianist, the latest feature from Roman Polanski, may be the best. Read full review
90
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Polanski’s strongest and most personally felt movie. Read full review
90
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Polanski, who was a Jewish child in Krakow when the Germans arrived in September 1939, presents Szpilman's story with bleak, acid humor and with a ruthless objectivity that encompasses both cynicism and compassion. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
Szpilman takes to performing sonatas in thin air, eyes closed, those jittery fingers stroking nothing but air. It's a wonderful moment in a wonderful, ghastly film, and one of the most moving arguments for the redemptive powers of art ever made. Read full review
88
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
After an hour, The Pianist stops being the Holocaust movie and becomes a Holocaust movie. Read full review
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Polanski's view of life is like that of Greek tragedy, with the same cold comfort that tragedy implies; from the larger perspective which art gives us, we know even horrors eventually pass. Read full review
88
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
If The Pianist isn't quite as devastating as "Schindler's List" -- the movie with which all other Holocaust movies must be compared -- it's because Polanski isn't interested in an expansive view of the war. Read full review
88
USA TodayMike Clark
With this 2002 Cannes Film Festival best-picture winner, Polanski skips the quirky flourishes and simply brings history to life. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
To the extent that movies bear the residue of their filmmakers' autobiographies, I found The Pianist particularly compelling. Read full review
88
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
The power of the arts to transcend cultural differences is presumably what moves the German to spare Szpilman, and, perhaps, is the key to Polanski's salvation as well. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The closing scenes of the movie involve Szpilman's confrontation with a German captain named Wilm Hosenfeld -- Polanski's direction of this scene, his use of pause and nuance, is masterful. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Crafted without a whiff of melodrama, this motion picture takes a steady, unflinching look at the plight of Jews in Warsaw. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Nothing can detract from the film as a portrait of hell so shattering it's impossible to shake. Read full review
80
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Polanski's film is an unqualified success both dramatically and artistically. Read full review
80
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
To name only one of its predecessors -- for me, the towering one -- doesn't "Schindler's List" do everything that Polanski achieves and more? Read full review
80
Film ThreatDarrin Keene
Does the world need another Holocaust film? When the director is Roman Polanski, the answer is an unequivocal “yes." Read full review
80
TimeRichard Schickel
A raw, unblinking film. It teaches that in dire circumstances our only obligation is to our own survival; all else -- culture, ideology, even love -- is a dispensable luxury. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
Polanski, wisely, doesn't interpret or explain. He seems to have decided that in the face of such meticulously planned horror, the best one can do is get the details right. Read full review
75
New York PostV.A. Musetto
The Pianist recalls "Schindler's List," even down to its weakness: Just as Spielberg's film turned sentimental in its final half hour, Polanski's work, too, has a schmaltz coda. But that doesn't make The Pianist any less effective. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
Has a sense of emotional urgency and deep-dwelling grief. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Through Brody's remarkably controlled, self-effacing performance, Polanski succeeds in making his hero an invisible man, but the sights he conjures are surprisingly artless and ordinary, familiar from a dozen other Holocaust dramas. Among the casualties in The Pianist is a great director's imagination. Read full review
70
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Suffers from over-explanation. The movie maintains tremendous momentum through the Szpilman family's deportation. The second half is another story. Read full review
70
The New YorkerDavid Denby
The movie is about preservation and restoration and the power of art. But with what gain in knowledge? It's as if Szpilman had no soul, and no will, apart from an endless desire to tickle the keys. [13 January 2003, p. 90]
67
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Offers nothing new. It's actually one of Polanski's more conventional films and, ultimately, it's hard to recommend it with a clear conscience. Read full review
60
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
Astonishing visually and problematic dramatically.
50
Film ThreatPhil Hall
At the risk of being called an anti-Semite, I would like to propose a moratorium on Holocaust movies -- While it would be crass to discount the importance of the subject, at the same time one has to admit there is some degree of excess going on here. Read full review
50
VarietyTodd McCarthy
Surprisingly lacks a feeling of personal urgency and insight that would have made it a distinctive, even unique contribution to the considerable number of films that deal with the war in general and Holocaust in particular. Read full review
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