Beautiful to look at, but unpleasant and overrated.

Rating: 4/10 (28 February 2016)

I don't understand some of the praise The Piano received. Holly Hunter's acting is not as good as I expected. She mostly keeps the same emotionless face throughout the movie, even in the two scenes where Ada certainly feels incredible pain. I don't see how challenging could it be for an actress to pull that off.
Young Anna Paquin is good, but not as good as I thought she would be. She is adorable and does an accent and all, but not for a moment blew my mind.
Some say this is feminist. Maybe it's because I'm a man and can't fully understand it, but watching the movie I thought my female feminist friends would feel offended by the screenplay. Ada is weak and allows awful things to happen to her - yes, she loves that piano and wants it back (you could never tell by Hunter's expressions), but maybe she should have been more "vocal" about it instead of becoming a prostitute. She hardly resists such disgusting proposals, even though she's not supposed to be perceived as a slut.
Some say this is romantic and passionate. To me, it felt like a creepy story about a woman who falls in "love" with a disgusting man, and it reminded me of Stockholm syndrome. It worked a lot better in Beauty and the Beast.
The Piano is a very unpleasant movie, and no eye candy could save it.