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.

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'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.

Probably the thing that Polanski's Oliver Twist does best, is deliver the mood of the day

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With intelligence and style (inspired by the art of Gustave Doré and Francisco Solé), Polanski makes a rewarding contribution to Dickens' legacy on screen.

The movie understands what Polanski himself knew upon surviving the Holocaust--you take your kindness where you can find it, weighing its price along the way.

It just might supplant David Lean's 1948 version as the one that students turn to for a 2-hour study guide.

A severely overlooked, exceedingly well-done version of an oft-told tale...One of the best films of 2005.

[T]he maddening thing is not just that we hardly need another movie adaptation of [Oliver Twist] ... but that there are other Dickens books that haven't been given the major movie treatment that would better suit Polanski's temperament.