A girlie romance (that I don't really like), but outstanding

Rating: 7/10 (1 July 2014)

I'm going to do something that I don't usually do and give a "thumbs up" to 1993's "The Piano" even though I don't particularly like major aspects of the story. Why? Because everything else about the film is exceptional on every level -- the beautiful dense forest cinematography of New Zealand's North Island, the realism of the Maori and the 1850's colony, the beautiful piano score, the great acting, etc.
THE PLOT: A mute Scottish woman, Ada (Holly Hunter), and her daughter (Anna Paquin) go to a New Zealand plantation to meet her husband, Stewart (Sam Neill), an arranged marriage. Ada is slowly seduced by a gruff worker on the plantation, George Baines (Harvey Keitel), as she gives him piano lessons.
The story is Exhibit A on why arranged marriages aren't a good idea. After all, how can you be "one flesh" with someone for the rest of your life if you don't even like him/her or find him/her attractive? This is an adult historical drama with inoffensive, but overt nudity and adult themes, like control, sexual repression, sexual growth and the search for true love. Even though this is a girlie romance movie and I find elements of the drama dreadfully boring -- like Stewart's final confrontation with Baines (where you can barely make out the dialogue) -- the film makes up for it in every other department. It's in the realm of overall atmosphere -- the realistic, awesome, beautiful and harsh ambiance of 1850's New Zealand -- that the movie shines.
The film was shot on location in New Zealand and runs 121 minutes.
GRADE: B