Out of tune

Rating: 4/10 (3 May 2015)

Holly Hunter, without saying a word, turns in a remarkable performance in The Piano. It's a shame that performance is stuck in such an unremarkable movie. This is a slow, plodding, grim and quite dull movie. Hunter creates a compelling character but the movie really has very little else going for it. The whole thing is rather pretentious. This is a tough movie to get through.
The story unfolds in the mid-19th century. Hunter plays Ada McGrath, a mute Scotswoman who has been sold into an arranged marriage to a New Zealander, Alisdair Stewart. So after a long journey Ada comes ashore in New Zealand. She brings two very important things with her. Her young daughter, Flora. And her piano. Playing the piano is the way this woman who cannot speak expresses herself. She pours her heart into her piano playing. So suffice to say her relationship with Alisdair gets off to quite a rocky start when he decides he can't be bothered transporting the piano to his home and leaves it to rot on the beach. This is not going to be a happy marriage.
Alisdair ends up selling the piano, which mind you isn't even his, to his neighbor George Baines. Ada is of course enraged. Further enraged when Alisdair orders her to give George piano lessons. George is a very simple man. He can't read. He has adopted many of the local Maori customs, including tattooing his face. Why does this crude man want to learn how to play the piano? Well he doesn't. He wants Ada. He just wants to watch her play. They come to an arrangement where she can earn her piano back by letting him do things while she plays. And the things George wants to do are not at all innocent. Maybe he'll start by just looking up her skirt. But before long they're naked and in bed. Well, what's a girl to do when she wants her piano back, right? Anyhow, this whole arrangement goes badly because George actually has affection for Ada but she's just using him to get her precious piano. And of course there is the small matter of Ada's marriage to Alisdair. That loveless marriage, with its complete lack of affection, greatly frustrates Alisdair. That frustration will manifest itself in rather terrible ways.
This all seems like it could make for an interesting story but for whatever reason the movie just doesn't work. It is not entertaining at all. The whole thing is so bleak, perfectly matching its backwater setting. Hunter does so well to convey so much emotion without even speaking. You always know exactly what Ada is thinking, great credit to Hunter for being able to convey that. The role of Ada's young daughter turns out to be a critical one and Anna Paquin does well with it. Flora is an intelligent, mischievous little schemer and Paquin's performance is very good, very mature. An Academy Award was probably a bit much though. Whereas Hunter and Paquin shine the men in the picture don't come off nearly as well. Admittedly they're not helped by a script which gives them some rather clunky, awkward dialogue. Harvey Keitel plays George and never really seems comfortable in the role. Meanwhile Sam Neill's portrayal of Alisdair falls hopelessly flat. This is a movie largely about passion but it comes across as almost entirely passionless. It's a movie that is badly out of tune.