One of the Best Films of 1993

Rating: 9/10 (10 February 2009)

A lot of audiences didn't quite know what to make of "The Piano" upon its initial release, which I think is a testament to its originality. I really hadn't seen anything quite like this movie and was riveted on my first go around with it.
Jane Campion wrote and directed this story about a mute woman arranged to marry a landowner (Sam Neill) in 19th Century New Zealand. She has two loves: her young daughter (played by Anna Paquin) and her piano. She's drawn to a frightening but magnetic worker on the plantation (Harvey Keitel) and begins a torrid affair with him. Things come to a boil when she's found out by her husband.
The film is intensely erotic without being gratuitous. The characters are fascinating, and the acting is uniformly stellar. Holly Hunter gives a brave and fierce performance. Not brave because she allows herself to be filmed nude frequently or because she recreates quite graphic sex acts; but rather brave because she allows her character to be complicated and difficult and perhaps to some even unlikable. She never asks for our sympathy, but she does ask for our understanding. Neill and Keitel offer able support, and child actor Paquin amazes and delivers a quite un-childlike performance.
Top the whole thing off with vivid cinematography and a lush score from Michael Nyman and you have one of the best films to emerge from 1993.
Grade: A