review for Death and the Maiden on AllMovie

Although its origin is made too clear by a stage-bound production, this adaptation of an Ariel Dorfman play poses profound ethical and philosophical questions and boasts riveting performances from its cast, representing a highlight in the comeback stage of director Roman Polanski's career. Although this is primarily a three-character piece, Gerardo (Stuart Wilson) is superfluous to a degree, standing in as he does for the audience. Death and the Maiden is really a duet between Paulina (Sigourney Weaver) and Dr. Miranda (Ben Kingsley), and the actors do not disappoint, navigating the peaks and valleys of an emotional roller-coaster ride. A monument to anger and pain, Weaver is electrifying, while Kingsley convincingly portrays lethal cunning as a man literally thinking for his life. If the film has a flaw, it's the visually static aspects of the storytelling. Polanski should have sought more visual ways to open up the play's action (a climactic scene atop a bluff is a welcome relief from the confining one-room setting), but this is a small quibble. Just as a documentary can be compelling as nothing more than a series of talking heads as long as those heads are saying something interesting, so too can a play adaptation work grandly in cinematic form when the source material is this richly rewarding.