Joy Devore

Only people who have starved can truly understand the starving. This film has been criticized for it's slow-moving parts, but that is the brilliance of it. Starvation is not an action-packed thriller: it's a slow and steady death march. And that's precisely the image Polanski painted here in "The Pianist." It captures a piece of the truth that war stories often miss. The take over is gradual. Every now and then, the weight of fear is lightened with hope. That is the torture. That is war. It is overwhelming noise followed by deafening silence. Polanski pulls you in to listen as Wladyslaw Szpielman laboriously breathes in that quietness. So lean in. Sit uncomfortably with him in the empty spaces, and hold your breath.