Death and the Maiden is a psychological thriller from director Roman Polanski about a woman (Sigourney Weaver) who believes that a man her husband brings home one night (Ben Kingsley) was a key member in her torture years earlier. She ties him up and tortures him so that he will confess to what he's done. But did he really do it? So begins a tense night, where secrets are revealed from all three of the main characters. The plot progression was fantastic; we slowly learn of each person's history and motivations in very calculated amounts. Kingsley's acting was superb. Until the end, we could never be certain whether he did it or not. He reveals nothing despite being on screen almost the entire movie. Most of Weaver's acting was also great, but was marred by the occasional ludicrous piece of dialogue or ludicrous delivery of an otherwise normal line. The descriptions of torture were hard to bear sometimes, but essential because it gave the audience a glimpse into what she had been through. The music was great as well (Schubert's Death and the Maiden, from which this movie gets its title).Sigourney Weaver was naked for a period of time in the beginning of the movie. It was both unnecessary and unwanted. Because she looks like a man--an ugly man. The first half hour or so felt really wobbly; you could tell how Polanski tried to force tension on the audience to keep us interested as he set the scene for the rest of the movie. The story often went off on tangents (the husband sleeping with another woman) that would neither relate back to the central plot nor increase the tension. So why were they included at all? Sometimes characters would act in extreme and unrealistic ways, and others would consequently react to those actions unrealistically as well. The ending felt like a cop-out to me because everything was tied up a little too neatly. Both the cinematography and editing were unexceptional, except for several shots that made excellent use of foreground and background to increase the tension. I really did enjoy this movie though, and recommend it if you like psychological thrillers and/or Polanski.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt0109579/