The Piano

Rating: 10/10 (16 September 2005)

Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated director Jane Campion has created an excellent film about one woman's inner soul and feeling being expressed by a wonderful sounding instrument. Based in the mid-19th century, a mute woman, Ada (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe winning Holly Hunter) is the woman married to a man she has never met, Alisdair Stewart (Sam Neill), so she is leaving Scotland along with her young translating daughter Flora (Oscar winning, and Golden Globe nominated Anna Paquin, aka, X-Men's Rogue) to New Zealand's South Island. But the one thing Ada does not want forgotten of all her possessions is her precious piano, the one instrument she can really express herself, and almost communicate with. But her nasty husband (who has no interest in it) sells it to his neighbour, illiterate George (Harvey Keitel). George promises that if Ada teaches and plays the piano for him at his home, he will eventually return it to her. But soon enough, after some despising from Ada, and some stroking, it turns into a real relationship (affair), that will be doomed when Flora and then Alisdair discover their love. It may have tragic conclusions, with Ada's finger chopped off, and Ada being able to let go of her piano, but it is a very touching story. Both Hunter and 11-year-old Paquin deserved their Oscars, and the BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated score by Michael Nyman and Veronika Jenet is exquisite. It won the Oscar for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen for Campion, and it was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing and Best Picture, it won the BAFTAs for Best Costume Design and Best Production Design, and it was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound, the David Lean Award for Direction and Best Film, and it was nominated the Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture - Drama and Best Screenplay. Harvey Keitel was number 53 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, and the film was number 33 on The 100 Greatest Sexy Moments for Keitel's rubbing of Hunter's small stocking hole (vulnerability). Outstanding!