The Piano (1993)

You all know me. I'm the kind of guy who's all nice about movies (Most of the time...) and doesn't get that worked up about them. Over time, I'm not as violently angry or frustrated with Frogs like I once was and my rage towards [Most of] Standing Ovation as settled down after awhile. But, there is one film that just p**ses me off the most and my disgust and hatred towards it is still there. While not in my bottom 10 list of worst films, I still regard it as one of my worst experiences with a film ever. The film in question in the 1993 Best Picture nominee, The Piano by director Jane Campion.

The film is about Ada McGrath (played by Holly Hunter), a young mute woman who is married off to Alistair Stewart (played by Sam Niel), a frontiersmen from New Zealand. She moves over there, with her daughter named Flora McGrath (played by a very young Anna Paquin), and takes her old piano with her, which is one of the only ways she can express herself through. There, she falls in love (I'll get to that) with some guy living in the area called George Baines (Played by Harvey Keitel). It's a romantic drama of sorts from what I read about.

First of all, let's get this out the way. The cinematography, most of the acting, and a lot of the other technical aspects are quite good. As much as I dislike this film, I got to give it credit where credit is due. Now, let's get the heart of the problem with this film. The romance part of this film (Pretty much what this film is mostly about in general) is completely unbelievable.

Let me explain this: When Ada arrives with her piano, the men who help her move to her new home cannot carry the piano back to the village easily, so they leave it on the beach where Ada first arrived. Now, through some convincing and help from Flora, Ada convinces George to take her to the beach where she can play the piano. After hearing her play, George manages to get some people to take the piano back into the village, but only to his house. When Ada confronts him to get the piano back, he will only let her take it back if she teaches him piano... which never happens and frankly, I'm not sure how that would work well. Instead, he has her constantly come over and actually gets sexually worked up over here, having her strip from him or fondling her. Finally, he makes her have sex with him against her will! Apparently, the plot says she is becoming attractive to him as well and submits to his desire, but Holly Hunter's acting skills really must suck, because she doesn't look like that at all. She looks scared and mortified, especially with those eyes, when he just randomly shows up naked and asks for her to do it with him. Hell, she is even creeped the hell out by his requests earlier on to strip and even backs away when he touches her.

So frankly, in other words, we have a series of scenes that should show these two people coming together, but that's not it. It is a series of scenes instead looking like a woman, who is desperate to get her prized possession, getting sexually exploited and abused by a creepy man for his own pleasure. Eventually, she gives in and starts falling in love with her abuser! What the f**k!? This is why this movie completely loses me and makes me angry. The whole basis for this love is completely not believable at all and is quite horrifying!

But that's not all. By the end of the movie, the characters are not enjoyable at all! I already explained why George is unlikeable, but let's get to the problem with Alistar, the guy Ada is married to. The moment he finds out about this affair, he locks her up in a room for awhile just to keep her from leaving and later on, he chops off her own finger! With Ada, she uses her own daughter to continue on her affair with George, forcing her to takes notes to him, even though Flora clearly doesn't want to, does like him, or even approve of what her mother is doing. So Ada just bullies and pressures her into doing it despite knowing her daughter's problem with this. Ada is also completely stuck up and just does not seem to like a single person at all, hell, I think she looks down on everyone considering her own philosophy of finding the world uninteresting. Flora is not as bad as the others, but she just comes off as annoying and sets off the reason for why Ada gets her finger removed.

Then we move to acting. I mention that most of the acting was good, but I do have problems with it that hurt this film really badly. Like with the before mention Ada and George scenes, where you cannot at all buy these two falling in love, I need to focus on Harvey Keitel's performance. This guy looks completely bored out of his mind throughout this film or completely emotionless, that any scene that requires some emotion, he is unconvincing. Holly Hunter, on the other hand, is good but comes off as terrible some big emotional and dark scenes. I brought up the finger getting chop part earlier, when that happens, she has no reaction at all. I don't expect a mute woman to scream or saying something in response to what just happen, but litterally, she has no reaction on her face. No stuble facial moment or eyes even widening. She looks like someone just hit her with a damn paperball instead of having a finger hacked off. This was a big scene for the movie and it is ruined completely.

This is a movie that is completely ruined by the fact that romance, a gigantic part of this film, was not believable at all and written & poorly acted; not to mention the acting from the main leads that is not convincing during pivotal moments of the film and characters that I just don't care for. This film just completely ticks me off. It's just so bad in these areas that nothing can save it. While most of the world loves it, I just cannot. I hope you understand from my point of view why I hate this film and why I consider it a bad movie.

Feel free to now tell your own opinion and prove why my own is wrong.