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So he fucked a little girl and got kicked out of the country. Does that mean the guy can't make a damn good movie? Nooo.

For those of you who were afraid that "The Ninth Gate" with Johnny Depp was what Roman Polanski's talent has been reduced to, you can stop being afraid (and for those of you who didn't see "Ninth Gate," it sucked dick)

In this real-life story of survival and fear, the Polish director revisits the Warsaw of his country's Nazi days and shows us a holocaust account from one man's point of view without interfering.

With the exception of a couple details that could have made it more compelling and were most likely included to honor Wladyslaw Szpilman's wishes (yes, that really is the pianist's name), this movie carried on with such a matter-of-fact tone that one really gets the feeling of omniscience while watching it.

Although the film never forces us to take sides, we see the story (even the Warsaw Uprising is shot from Szpilman's limited view) through the eyes of the main character and not the director. In an age where Spike Lee feels he has to make a movie about Malcom X and then screw it up in the last 15 minutes with his own feelings on black people in general, where Steven Spielberg makes a solid epic on Oscar Schindler and then decides to just end the story and let us in on how brilliant it was of him to cast real holocaust survivors' grandchildren, it is refreshing and satisfying to just be completely enveloped in the hero's world when dealing with such heavy subject matter.

By the way, Adrien Brody is a much better protagonist than Roberto Benigni. Not quite as wacky and full of "life," but definitely more realistic. WARNING: NOT a Hollywood flick. Don't look for a satisfying ending, etc..

Dr. Tom

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