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Must Go!
Avg. Critic Score: 85 out of 100 Universal acclaim Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
16 OK for kids 16+
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 100
    Washington Post | Desson Thomson

    Polanski, himself a survivor of Nazi-occupied Poland, has created a near-masterpiece. Read full review

  • 100
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    A beautiful story, told in measured cadences by a master of old-timey narrative compression and expression. Read full review

  • 100
    San Francisco Chronicle | Mick LaSalle

    One of the great Holocaust films. Read full review

  • 91
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa 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

  • 90
    The New York Times | Dana 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

  • 90
    Los Angeles Times | Manohla 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

  • 88
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Nothing can detract from the film as a portrait of hell so shattering it's impossible to shake. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Mike 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
    Chicago Sun-Times | Roger 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

  • 50
    Variety | Todd 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


Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says OK for kids 16+ True story of a Jewish pianist; OK for older kids.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this is clearly not a movie for children. However, in addition to being an excellent work of art, it's an instructive movie for teenagers who take for granted the comfort and stability of their world. War isn't glamorous, and the most principled and courageous people are among its first victims. This is an excellent movie about survival, fate, and values. It's a very worthwhile movie for young adults. Parents should know that the movie has strong language and graphic and horrific violence, including casual murder of Jews.
  • Families can talk about why movies like this one, which is based on a true story, are so important, even today. Are there any current events you can think of that are similar to the plight of Jews in World War II?
What to watch for
  • violence false4 Violence: Intense violence, characters killed in Holocaust. Explosions. Total devastation of towns after bombings.
  • sex false0 Sex: Not an issue
  • language false4 Language: Very strong language.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: Not an issue
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false1 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Mild.

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