Roman Polanski’s “Oliver Twist” is a tale of foreboding with faint reverberations of both the Holocaust and 19th-century British anti-Semitism. It is a weighty, rewarding film, and the antithesis of what passes for children’s entertainment these days.
This latest adaptation of Charles Dickens’ novel was clearly made by a man who had his childhood stolen by loathsome adults, and serves as a sobering response to Harry Potter, “Spy Kids” and the annoyingly cute hobbits who persevered in “The Lord of the Rings” films.
In Dickens’ world — and Polanski’s — there are no prepubescent superheroes to outsmart and outmaneuver the bad guys. Both the novelist and the filmmaker ground their work in real life, where brute strength and institutional authority (or apathy) rule, and children are too weak to defend themselves.
“Oliver Twist” opens Friday, Sept. 30, in the Bay Area.
The film begins in a workhouse for orphans, where Oliver (Barney Clark) and the other lads do painstaking menial labor. Filmed in monochromatic gray, with the dejected boys clad in ragged gray uniforms and caps, the scene is an unmistakable homage to the prisoners confined in Nazi concentration camps.
After a series of nightmarish episodes in the workhouse and as an apprentice to an undertaker, Oliver takes to the road. London appears like Oz in the distance, basking in the sunrise like the pot at the end of the rainbow. The shot is patently ironic, for what awaits Oliver is fool’s gold.
In London, he is recruited by the Artful Dodger (Harry Eden), a young thief who heads a gang of child pickpockets that receives shelter, food and instruction from a bent old Jew, Fagin.
A complex figure of mixed motives, Fagin is equal parts corrupter and protector. But Ben Kingsley, a shoo-in for an Oscar nomination for supporting actor, eliminates most of Fagin’s venality, playing him as a near-sighted eccentric who talks sweetly to himself — and to his new ward, Oliver.
Initially, Fagin appears greedy and interested only in the size of his boys’ haul. In fact, he is fearful and self-protective, as his good years are waning and there’s no pension in his line of work.
The attentive viewer will note that Fagin is tolerated but not accepted by the other criminals and low-lifes. He has no friends or acquaintances beyond the pickpockets and a brutal thug named Bill Sykes (a fearsome Jamie Foreman), and even they routinely call him “devil” and “old skeleton.”
Since Sykes is the embodiment of evil, Fagin looks increasingly benign. As the plot unfolds, both Oliver’s and the audience’s relationship to Fagin deepens, giving the film its considerable emotional power.
At the end of the day, Fagin cannot be easily pigeonholed as either villain or victim, for he both betrays and is betrayed. Ultimately, the Jew is a tragic figure, demonized by the media, the law and the public.
The rank indifference and hypocrisy of this society is epitomized by the crowds who turn out to cheer Fagin’s punishment, but did nothing to help the thousands of exploited children in London.
To Polanski, presumably, it’s Europe and America in the 1940s, when comparatively few lifted a hand to save the Jews but millions were pleased to see justice done after the fact.
As for the good Mr. Brownlow, a wealthy bachelor who meets Oliver by chance, he faithfully represents the promise of a brighter future for the boy. But Polanski’s terrific “Oliver Twist” is not a reassuring endorsement of happy endings, but a solemn admonition that all happiness is an illusion.
For those who know even a few details of Polanski’s life, that will come as no surprise.
“Oliver Twist” opens Friday, Sept. 30, in the Bay Area.