✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
New Zealand, Australia, France · 1993
Rated R · 2h 1m
Director Jane Campion
Starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, Anna Paquin
Genre Drama, Romance
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After a long voyage, pianist Ada McGrath and her young daughter are left with all their belongings, including a piano, on a New Zealand beach. Ada, who has been mute since childhood, has been sold into marriage to a local man named Alisdair. Ada soon becomes intrigued by his Maori-friendly acquaintance, leading to life-altering conflicts.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
Although the action tends to become melodramatic and even overwrought at times, the imaginative power of Campion's images and emotional insights (especially with regard to the heroin) rarely allow the story to seem artificial or exaggerated. [12 Nov 1993]
Washington Post by Desson Thomson
The Piano plays itself with such contrapuntal richness, it resonates in you forever.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
"Sweetie" and "An Angel at My Table" have taught us to expect startling as well as beautiful things from Jane Campion, and this assured and provocative third feature offers yet another lush parable--albeit a bit more calculated and commercially minded--about the perils and paradoxes of female self-expression.
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
It takes exceptional acting to enable a story like this to take hold, and Campion has gotten it here. [19 Nov 1993]
Austin Chronicle by Marjorie Baumgarten
The wonder of The Piano is that such an outwardly simple story could emerge into such a complex swirl of lingering memories.
Chicago Tribune by Michael Wilmington
In Jan Campion's The Piano, the emotions are deep, fierce, primordial. Sexuality overwhelms the film's characters like ocean waves blasting against a cliffside. [19 Nov 1993]
Campion's script is very well received, but the film finally makes it on cinematics: bleakly beautiful photography, haunting score, and good acting. [12 Nov 1993]
Campion has spun a fable as potently romantic as a Bronte tale. But The Piano is also deeply cinematic. [22 Nov 1993]
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen
Great art is both immediately accessible and eternally elusive, having at its centre a powerful simplicity that speaks to anyone who cares to listen, that rewards every interpretation while embracing none. The Piano is great art.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
It is one of those rare movies that is not just about a story, or some characters, but about a whole universe of feeling.
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Lush, wild, and achingly romantic. A deeply stirring drama about love, passion, and eroticism.