Following the miserable life of a young orphan boy named Oliver Twist, whose mother has died upon his birth and is taken to the workhouse, where he has a miserable life, but incidents come worse when he has been taken by a street robber, who hijacks boys and teaches them robbery to work with him.
The unspoken sense of youthful post-traumatic holocaust syndrome shock and awe in Polanski's Twist is as palpable as the murky stench and appalling human misery of Dickens' chaotic London streets.
Polanski has crafted something that already feels like a classic film, beautiful to look at, combining accurate period detail with a certain gothic expressionism and brimming with earthy characters and high drama.
Polanski's film is not a bad adaptation, and it may be a fine way to introduce children to the classic story. But it is not exactly a definitive version of that story.
ComingSoon.net
April 25, 2011
Oliver Twist is an affecting and refreshing adaptation of Dickens seminal work from a master director.
