Beautiful Cinematography Throughout; A Promising Opening Scene; Terrible Thereafter

Rating: 4/10 (20 March 2020)

This movie is so bad, other than its cinematography, it's hard to believe it received so much praise at the time of its initial release, and continues to do so.
WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD
I found none of the main characters sympathetic nor likable. Not even little Anna Paquin's character, Flora, the daughter of main character Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter); at a few occasions throughout the movie one felt the little girl Flora was consciously and with purpose trying to cause trouble for her mother and create turmoil and upset for the other main characters. Main character Ada McGrath was selfish, self-absorbed, angry, manipulative and seemingly uninterested in even communicating with anyone around her other than her daughter, and then only to express her demands, never to inquire about the feelings of anyone else. Rather than attempt to make it clear she was determined to get her piano back in some honest way, she immediately whored herself to her neighbor and cuckolded her new husband to reacquire it. Even her expression of "love" for the neighbor George Baines (Harvey Keitel) seemed only to be made as a means of effecting her escape from her arranged marriage. Husband Alistair Stewart (Sam Neill) was clueless, selfish, mean-spirited (for his own gain he traded away his new wife's treasured piano shortly after first leaving it on the beach rather than as well as committing his wife to teaching piano lessons on it within days of meeting her, after having first left it on the beach rather than make arrangements to transport it to their home!), a bit of a sicko (spying on your wife shagging your neighbor through cracks in a wall and from under the floor of your neighbor's house!), and he ultimately violently disfigured his wife in a fit of jealous rage. Neighbor Baines takes an immediate shine to his neighbor's new wife and spies a way to coerce her into his bed by trading for the wife's piano! Under the guise of wanting piano lessons he instead offers the piano back to his neighbor's wife in exchange for a long series (44 at first ... one for every black key in the piano!) of various demeaning physical intimacies and ultimately sexual favors! My how "romantic"! Ugh.
Lastly ... everyone in this movie sported such wretchedly poor regional accents that listening to the characters speak was cringe inducing. Only Sam Neill's voice could be heard without shuddering; while I'm not sure even he sounded quite right as a Kiwi, at least he sounded vaguely but authentically "of the British Empire" so you could at least mentally give him a pass. Little Anna Paquin's weird effort at a Scottish accent was all over the place. Harvey Keitel ... I don't know what the hell he was supposed to sound like but it was a mess. Even the "mute" character played by Holly Hunter spoke enough butchered Scottish accent inside her head that one wishes her inner voice was also mute.
I wanted to enjoy this movie because I remember how much praise it received when it came out. However even nearly thirty years later, and on my second viewing now, I found it even worse than the first time around, which unfortunately I guess I didn't recall before starting watching it tonight to pass the time during this year's "COVID19 / Corona Virus" pandemic enforced "social distancing" and working from home.
Summary: Beautifully Shot. Otherwise Horrid.