Hopefully the nadir of antipodean film

Rating: 1/10 (7 August 2000)

The Piano is the prime, shining example of how a film may win great critical acclaim by combining a politically correct theme with an esoteric subject matter, despite having almost no other redeeming features. With the single exception of the rather beautiful (and genuinely allegorical) opening image of the Piano itself, sitting incongruously on a New Zealand beach, the film has nothing new, challenging or remotely entertaining (heaven forbid!) to offer. Holly Hunter's heroine's silence is a ludicrously contrived conceit, presumedly invented by Campion to force down her unfortunate audience's throats the notion that the most eloquent form of communication in this film is through music; I think we could have worked that out without it being so unsubtly pinpointed. As for the actual plot - well, it creaks and groans with so many improbabilities, anachronisms and eye-rollingly obvious symbolic gestures that this viewer was left puzzling, mouth agape, that even the most sympathetic critic could consider it anything better than embarrassing. I know it won universal acclaim at the time and remains a favourite for many, but the reasons remain entirely beyond me. It deserves 1 point for the image mentioned above, but no more.