Grand Piano

source: Grand Piano

This tries to do for Elijah Wood's nervous concert pianist what the far superior "Phone Booth" did for Colin Farrell's sleazy publicist and that is: trap someone in a very public place and gradually increase the suspense, tension and menace. Grand Piano almost completely fails in every respect. Elijah Wood's character, Tom Selznick, is returning to the stage five years after breaking down during a performance of an exceptionally difficult piece but he appears to have no depth or believable layers to be stripped away during his ordeal; an essential element in this kind of setup. He is presented as a one-dimensional cypher, a nervous man reluctantly cajoled into a comeback by his exceptionally talented and successful actress wife, played utterly unconvincingly by Kerry Bishé. John Cusack plays Clem the mysterious gunman threatening to shoot both Selznick and/or his wife if he makes a single mistake while playing the famous piece he failed to complete five years previously or if he tries to get help. John Cusack's immense talent is completely wasted on this drivel. He brings a convincing amount of menace to the part but has so little to do I can only assume he took the part purely for a quick pay-check or as a favour for a friend. The reason for Clem engaging in such a grandiose scheme is so painfully contrived and completely ludicrous when finally revealed; that it could very well have originated in an episode of Scooby-Doo in the 1970's and have been recycled here. One of the few enjoyable things about the film is the appearance of Alex Winter (the one that isn't Keanu Reeves from Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) in a small supporting role and the other enjoyable thing is that it is mercifully short at barely 90 minutes long. If you have 90 minutes to spare some time then please don't fill it with this, watch Phone Booth again.

The best way to watch this movie is with no expectations. Since I've encouraged you to ignore the low reviews, we all know that it's more likely you'll go digging to find them. But, in my opinion, some have missed the point and ignored the artistry of the production. What we "know" sometimes gets in the way of imagination. If you can switch the right side of your brain on, and leave the left side off, there's a greater chance you'll enjoy it. It's something like looking at a painting and thinking that you're familiar with the subject, but if you gaze at it a little longer, it takes on a different context and you eventually appreciate what the artist captured from a totally different perspective.

Tom Selznick is an acclaimed concert pianist. However, after messing up a key performance, he withdrew from the public eye. He agreed to perform again at a concert-tribute to his departed mentor. But as he began to play, he noted a threat written on his sheet music. He should play perfectly to the note, or his wife will die. Elijah Wood plays Tom with his trademark wide-eyed style of acting. This film is practically a one-man show for Wood as all the focus was on him as he played for his wife's life while trying to psych out his unseen adversary. The constant look of fear on his face made this film work. For a non-piano player like myself, Wood's piano playing looked wonderfully realistic. The villain was played by John Cusack, whom we only hear for the most part as his chilling voice dictated what his captive should do. Cusack succeeds to convey that sinister feel by his vocal inflections alone. We only see his face for a brief while towards the end which was honestly a bit anti-climactic. The glamorous Kelly Bishe plays Tom's wife Emma, a celebrated actress who organized Tom's comeback event. Too bad, there really was not much for her to do here. I have to say though that I loved her haunting vocal solo (if that was actually her singing). Actually the whole situation was impossible. While Tom was passionately playing complicated pieces, he was in constant communication with his hostage-taker via an earpiece. During certain movements in the concerto, Tom was actually able to run off the stage to go to the dressing room to investigate. He can even text while playing piano! I don't really know what kind of superhuman ability Tom has to keep on playing perfectly while all of this stressful things were swirling around him. If you are able to suspend your disbelief in the incredibly improbable flow of events unfolding on the screen, you will get drawn into the excitement and tension of it all. This film is not very long, only an hour and twenty minutes. The whole situation was bordering on the absurd, yet the way director Eugenio Mira staged it, urgent suspense still prevailed. The cinematography was lush. The editing was well done. The music was otherworldly in its beauty. I enjoyed it. The middle section really had me on the edge of my seat. The concluding act was rather over-the-top, but overall this was a neat thriller that is worth to check out. 6/10.

This is my first review and at the same time the first time i reached the state of complete numbness or something opposite of nirvana. The movie starts of kinda dull, you've just met some kind of eccentric pianist who is not well adjusted to XXI century, don't know about you but it just goes in "it's kinda cliché" direction, and it is a writer's and director's job to prove us wrong, but they didn't. Story's not unique, and protagonist is this young fella who's some kind of genius or something, the only person alive who can play what is known as the hardest piece ever to be played. He starts playing and realizes that he's on gunpoint of a guy who doesn't want him to miss a note or he'll die, or his lovely wife. That strange lunatic man does that just because he and musician who owned that piano put a key in a piano, and the only way to get the key is to play the last 4 tablatures right, is this a joke or what? I was laughing, i'm not kidding. Well the whole story is annoying and boring, and i was in shock how lame it was, he didn't even use those piano pedals but you hear it in music he produces. That's all just an average bad movie, but what struck me the most in this piece of garbage was ending, when he goes in the truck to play the last four tablatures of that piece on broken piano and goddamn as you can predict he played it and as he disappointedly turned around and tried to get out, he hears lock and key falling. And there goes 10 minutes or so of credits, i mean what the hell? If you want to see an enlightening movie, don't watch this, but if you want to torture yourself just go ahead, this is a movie for you.

How often have you heard someone laughing out loud at a movie billed as a thriller? It happened at the screening of Grand Piano I attended. For about the first hour, this film does deliver chills as it keeps viewers guessing. After that, however, it feels as though the director had walked off the set and allowed a five-year-old child to finish it. Actually, Grand Piano might have been a more cohesive film if said child had directed the whole thing. John Cusack is very lucky that this film is showing only in art theaters. He'll survive this career move because few of his fans will see it. If it were showing in cineplexes, the theater managers would need to have the riot squad on speed dial. Grand Piano will have a short life in theaters, then go straight to DVD. At that point, I predict plumbers across the country will reap a bonanza from unclogging the toilets of people who buy it.

Here's a director who knows how to shoot a film and he directed the hell out of this silly script, but you can throw the fanciest camera tricks at a dog of a script -- but good looking nonsense is still nonsense. This is one of those high concept screenplays that seems churned out by an automated software writing program, not a human who actually sat down to write this. Elijah Wood gives a one note (pun!) performance and he's either miscast or just downright boring as our lead - though his hands do a convincing job. An off screen for most of the film John Cusack is our villain who will shoot Mr. Wood and his pretty little wife if he plays a wrong note. Cusack's expository dialogue over the last act of the film, explaining his motives are eye rolling and the remaining 15 minutes seem like the automated writing software malfunctioned when character motivation and narrative collided. A dumb, harmless film.

I was looking forward to seeing this as I like movies about music and thrillers and this one looked to combine both. I could not have been more disappointed. It started out as if it would be entertaining and then quickly took a turn downhill. There was basically no story, no build up of any characters, everything that was shown in the trailer was basically the whole move and the "twist" that was supposed to be delivered was so flat and that it solidified the idea that there was no point to the movie. The other thing I want to mention relates to an earlier review in the posts with which I couldn't agree with more. When you make a movie about a medicine you would hire and consult with medical professionals, same would go with police, scientists and so forth... Why was it so difficult then to consult someone who even played basic piano for this movie so that it would at least slightly appear that all of the piano playing wasn't completely fake. The first thing I noticed is that when the character "Tom" was playing, NOT once did he hold down the pedal. In the pieces he was playing the pedal would be used almost non-stop and he kept his feet flat on the floor the whole time which would never happen. There is also no way he could keep conversations like that while playing correct notes even if he was a world class pianist so the whole thing looked fake and kind of ridiculous. This on top of everything else just added to the disappointment.

Whoever wrote this needs to spend more time take writing courses and/or reality courses. The entire plot oscillated between silly, dumb and making no sense. Why put an old skeleton key (only fit old doors to old cabinets) in some really fakey mechanism inside an extremely expensive grand piano? Why not just break into the cabinet (or whatever the key fits) directly without having to go through all this elaborate, low probability, highly unpredictable caper. Or, just break into the piano. Or, just have the pianist play it at some other time like at night. Or, build a small mechanical device to play four notes. The whole laser, cryptic notes, ear phones, accomplice, murders, ending tussle, and then falling 60 feet destroying a piano and his hair looked as perfect as the first scene - all of it was just, Huh? Forgot, the movie is full of red laser pointer dots and beams. Are the several hundred people in the darkened hall blind? What wasted potential!

Really good movie, it deserves a better rating than a 6, my ten is to bump it up. From a literal frame of reference, some of it is unbelievable, like how he is talking and texting while playing the most difficult piano piece in the world....but I think people are missing the real beauty of this piece (movie). The movie itself is like a piece of music, rising and falling with a continual rise to the crescendo. All of this action and suspense/tension could very well have been taking place in the mind of the main character. You sense from the very start how neurotic and anxious he is about his career and his screw-ups. The way the movie unfolds make you feel like you are inside the mind of the pianist as he is playing the most difficult piece of music in the world. So the director NAILED it, if that was his intent. People don't see the underlying meaning to things, or how art can be a metaphor, for the human mind. Finally, throughout the starting about 5 people tell him to BREAK A LEG...haha. When he ends up falling and actually breaking his leg, I had totally forgot about that buildup, and it was genuinely GENIUS. A perfect ending to this intelligent thriller.