Oliver Twist

Taken from the workhouse and apprenticed to an undertaker, Oliver runs after a beating and walks to London. There the Artful Dodger finds him and brings him to Fagin, who runs a gang of child thieves. Oliver cannot learn to steal and cannot get out of the gang either. Roman Polanski directed from a screenplay by Ronald Harwood, the two having worked together on The Pianist. Ben Kingsley plays Fagin. The source is Charles Dickens's novel. The impulse behind it was personal: after The Pianist, Polanski wanted to make something his own children could watch. For Harwood it was the first Dickens project of his career. It was shot in the Czech Republic, in Prague, Beroun and Žatec, where nineteenth-century London was built. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on 11 September 2005 and went into limited release in the United States on 23 September. Barney Clark plays Oliver and Harry Eden the Artful Dodger. Who it is for: viewers who like Dickens adaptations and period production. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the emotional payoff of the novel. With the inheritance removed the ending is left open, and the film accepts that.