Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
When 9-year-old orphan Oliver Twist dares to ask his cruel taskmaster, Mr. Bumble, for a second serving of gruel, he's hired out as an apprentice. Escaping that dismal fate, young Oliver falls in with the street urchin known as the Artful Dodger and his criminal mentor, Fagin. When kindly Mr. Brownlow takes Oliver in, Fagin's evil henchman Bill Sikes plots to kidnap the boy.
Roman Polanski's 2005 adaptation of Dickens' Oliver Twist is a handsomely mounted, faithful retelling that benefits from strong production design and a committed performance from Ben Kingsley as Fagin. However, as a straightforward adaptation of one of literature's most frequently filmed stories, it offers little that distinguishes it from prior versions — the narrative is well-known, the beats are familiar, and Polanski plays it relatively straight without imposing a distinctive personal vision beyond solid craftsmanship. The cinematography is competent and period-appropriate but unremarkable. The acting is generally solid across the board, with Barney Clark capably carrying the film as Oliver, though Kingsley's Fagin occasionally tips toward caricature. The ending follows the novel faithfully and provides satisfying resolution, but again lacks surprise. Novelty scores low given the film's derivative nature relative to countless prior Twist adaptations.