SparkMore n my opinion it was a great movie with some interesting elements, even though having some plot holes and the ending probably was just too messy and crammed together, but still fun to watch and not your casual movie that is similar to all other ones.

TaryBiggBall It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

lasttimeisaw Roman Polanski's well-acclaimed feature debut, is the only film he has made in his native country Poland. KNIFE IN THE WATER is an intelligent drama exclusively resolves around three people, Andrzej (Niemczyk), his wife Krystyna (Umecka) and an unnamed young man (Malanowicz) with minimal locations.Middle-aged Andrzej, driving with his much younger wife Krystyna on their way to a daily sailing, en route, Andrzej almost knocks off a reckless hitchhiker, outraged, he still agrees to take the stranger, and eventually invites him to join them together for the excursion, here, Polanski hints the motivation, since the young man claims he doesn't have the faintest about sailing and cannot swim at all, as a man twice of his age, Andrzej's intention to teach him some hard lessons and make himself look good (an ego boost is very much needed because things are not very smooth between him and Krystyna as well) is quite obvious.The journey starts in a predicted direction, Andrzej is the self-claimed captain, as if he were a seasoned seafarer, instructs the young man with basic nautical techniques, teases him for his clumsiness, and gets offended when his yarn turns out to be a bore to his guest. The tension between the two men (two generations) is tangible, but out of courtesy and etiquette, it has been buried underneath the surface, there is even a peaceful period when all of them hide inside the sailing boat and spend a night during an unexpected tempest. The next day, what triggers the falling-out is actually very understated, but a sensitive soul may sense Andrzej's jealousy when he wakes up and finds out both Krystyna and the young man have already been staying outside, there is no inappropriate behaviours between them (as far as what Polanski shows us), but the insecurity of his sexual competence (especially facing the competition of a young man's hormones) pesters him even subconsciously, and soon it evolves into a battle of egos.From the young man's angle, he is not a wide-eyed simpleton, before accepting the invitation, he already betrays his complacency by saying that "he knows Andrzej will ask him to go with them", what does it mean? He is astute enough to predict Andrzej's motivation and is willing to take the challenge, with the fringe benefit of experiencing the middle-class luxury. Considering the time of the Communist Poland, it is an invitation rather tempting for a homeless youngster, but his rebellious nature will not yield to Andrzej's overreaching dominion though, he has nothing to lose, and his knife becomes the symbol of the eminent danger. It is understandable Polanski at that age, decides to side with him to outsmart his rival in the end, thanks to a telling lie ("I can't swim").But the film is not just a duel between two men, Krystyna is the key balance, in the beginning, she is introduced as an unassuming wife with an unprepossessing wig and rather dark complexion. And she is extremely disinterested in the bonding-and-clashing process between the two men, maybe she has witnessed such happenings many too often from Andrzej, and being a dab hand in sailing, one assumes she must have undergone the same tutoring from him, thus she simply has lost any interest in participation. But when she gets close the young man, the undercurrent of sexual tension starts to surface, she sultry sex appeal also slowly unfolds, especially after their song-and- poetry exchange inside the boat, she seems to find a kindred spirit. When the accident occurs, her resentment towards Andrzej explodes, and canoodling with a young man becomes her revenge to their insipid marriage (why woman can only use her sexuality as the weapon to rebel? - that's my disagreement with the film). Then the coda, when the interloper disappears, facing the crossroad, she can triumphantly take the moral high ground and keep this incident as a trumping card without the fabrication of a lie, because the egocentric Andrzej will never believe her story, aka. the truth and admit he has been fooled by the young man, a superb ending with perfect ambiguity.KNIFE IN THE WATER is a bracingly competent debut, largely shuns the disadvantages (e.g. self- absorbed pretension or becoming visually dreary) of a 3-way cast and limited settings, also it contains the accomplishment of its Jazz-fused soundtrack. But if one expects it being a taut thriller, it is not at that tempo at all, a solemn character drama is the right categorisation.

disinterested_spectator According to Chekhov, if you make people aware of a gun early on in a story, sooner or later someone in the story will have to shoot the gun. If the gun is not going to be fired, it should not be in the story. Now, knives are more common than guns, and are used for mundane purposes, such as cutting the meat on one's plate, so the rule that applies to guns cannot automatically be applied to knives. Unless, that is, it is a wicked-looking, gravity-propelled, telescoping knife with a four-inch, locking blade. When you put a knife like that in a story, then Chekhov's law applies to that weapon as well, and it is required that someone get cut with it.But no one does. Not only is this knife referred to in the title, but it is introduced early on and emphasized again and again. The tension is built up as the knife is used to play a dangerous game of stabbing between the fingers of a spread out hand. It is used again when it is several times thrown across the cabin and into the wall. And it is used to cut the halyard when the sailboat runs aground. This would be like having a gun in a movie, with people showing off their marksmanship or using it for some ordinary practical end. It would not satisfy our need to see the gun used for a more deadly purpose, just as these various employments of the knife do not satisfy our expectation that someone will be stabbed with it. But no one is.Finally, Andrzej takes the young man's knife and throws it in the water. The idea is that the young man was very fond of his knife, and Andrzej threw it in the water out of spite. But in that case, the object might just as well have been a harmonica that the young man was fond of. As it is, the fact that no one got stabbed after all the emphasis placed on the knife leaves us disappointed. Roman Polanski, who directed this movie, must have eventually figured this out, which is why Jack Nicholson got his nose sliced in "Chinatown."

Robert J. Maxwell It's a rather long movie for what it has to say, and I'm not sure what it has to say.A man and his wife (or girl friend) pick up a young hitch-hiker and for no discernible reason invite him to spend the day sailing on the driver's smallish schooner. The older man shows the younger how to handle a sail boat, acting a little pompous in the process. The young man becomes truculent. The two men punch each other and the hitch-hiker falls into the lake. He's claimed earlier than he can't swim although, in fact, he swims well. The older man dives overboard and searches. Unable to find the other guy, he becomes frazzled and swims to shore. The girl is left alone on the yacht.At this point the younger man swims up to the boat, climbs aboard while the girl watches him blankly from a distance. They make love. They finally take the boat in towards the marina and the young man leaps ashore and disappears before they reach it.The driver is waiting for her on the pier. He thinks that the young man has drowned and he feels responsible, talks about going to the police. Driving along in the car, she reveals that she and the younger man played doctor together. He doesn't believe her. He stops the car in front of a sign that read "Police, 5 Miles." The couple sit in silence. Fade Out.Now, this review must sound a little dull, I know, but it's an accurate image of the film itself which is full of irrelevant details, screwy scenes, and non sequiturs. The acting is passable, though the young man's and the girl's voices were dubbed later. The girl, Jolanta Umecka, is rather more than passable. At the opening, with her bound hair, harlequin glasses, and stiffly held neck, she looks like a nerd. When she sheds all those properties and dons a modest "bikini", she no longer looks like a nerd, and her sensuous features have a predatory cast. Wow.But this belongs to early Polanski, like "Cul de Sac." Beautiful babes in a will-of-the-wisp story. He went through a phase of near masterpieces later -- "Rosemary's Baby" and the superb "Chinatown." Lately he's been coming out with films of mixed quality, sometimes as puzzling as his first efforts.I'm leaving out "Two Men and a Wardrobe" because that's borrowed from theater of the absurd and doesn't fit the pattern. I haven't seen any of his earlier work other than those I've mentioned.Some have obviously gotten more out of this than I did. I thought it was okay, but not more than that. Too much pointless rambling.

Red_Identity Knife in the Water is again one of the Polanski films I have set on seeing. It is his debut feature, and all of his talent is present here in this unpredictable, tense, and complex character-driven film.The film enters a sense of ambiguity. It's good not to read too much on it, as the characters themselves are always behind a curtain. We see what they do, and we notice glimpses In their faces that tell their story, yet the reasons for their actions a times aren't always clear. The film itself is completely magnificent. The ambiguity of the characters, along with a well-paced story of events unfolding, creates this intriguing sense of unpredictability and excitement in the story- telling. It takes in the tension of a regular thriller, yet it never is that. Not even as the film continues, and even in the big 'event' that involves the breaking of the triangle, the film continues to surprise up until the ending. Not once did I stop dangling at the edge of my seat.Ultimately, this is a masterpiece. Great direction filled with a brilliant screenplay, it is probably the best debut film I have ever seen, as well as the best foreign-language film ever. I am not overestimating that, just thinking about this film gives me goosebumps. There aren't many films with sort of ambiguities like this, filling up each of the characters and the events of their lives.