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]

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.

Washington Post by Desson Thomson

The Piano plays itself with such contrapuntal richness, it resonates in you forever.

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.

USA Today by Mike Clark

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]

The New York Times by Vincent Canby

Prepare yourself for something very special...Here's a severely beautiful, mysterious movie that, as if by magic, liberates the romantic imagination. [16 Oct 1993]

Entertainment Weekly by Owen Gleiberman

By the end, Campion views all her characters with a compassion bordering on grace, a humanity-like her heroine's-as dark, quiet, and enveloping as the ocean.

San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann

Magical and haunting, The Piano has the power and delicate mystery of a gothic fairy tale. [19 Nov 1993]

Washington Post by Hal Hinson

The Piano is dark, sublime music, and after it's over, you won't be able to get it out of your head.

The New Yorker by Anthony Lane

The story worms further into the guts of Victorian experience than most historical dramas, because it aims at the most neglected aspect of that age, and the most alarmingly modern: its surrealism. [29 Nov 1993, p.148]

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]

Time by Richard Corliss

Campion has spun a fable as potently romantic as a Bronte tale. But The Piano is also deeply cinematic. [22 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 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.

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]