Review – Death and the Maiden

This is one of those productions that was obviously a stage play before it became a movie. Director Roman Polanski decided to preserve the stiff theatricality of the drama, keeping almost the entire story in one location, sticking with the play-it-for-the-back-row dialogue, and so on. Sigourney Weaver turns in a nuance-free performance as a former political prisoner in an unnamed South American country. Fate brings a man (Ben Kingsley) to the country house she shares with her husband. Claiming to recognize his voice, she identifies him as her torturer, ties him up at gunpoint and conducts a half-baked trial with hubby as counsel for the defense. The script is an uneven mix of artificial power-jockeying and graphic descriptions of torture. Though the unrealistic feel of the picture provides some safe distance between the audience and the difficult subject at hand, that buffer zone is a detriment as well as a benefit. In particular, it makes the end merely convenient rather than thought-provoking. Mildly amusing