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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Piano, The
Universal acclaim
Based on 20 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 36 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Romance
Written by: Jane Campion
Directed by: Jane Campion
Release Date:
Theatrical: November 1, 1993
DVD: January 25, 2001
Running Time: 121 minutes, Color
Origin: Australia / France / New Zealand
Summary
RATING: R
Starring Holly Hunter, Harvey Keitel, Sam Neill, and Anna Paquin
A seemingly mute woman (Hunter) is sent to New Zealand together with her daughter and her beloved piano, for an arranged marriage.
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Holy Smoke In the Cut The Portrait of A Lady
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
USA Today 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 Globe and Mail (Toronto) 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.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Desson Thomson
The Piano plays itself with such contrapuntal richness, it resonates in you forever.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times 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.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune 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]
The New York Times 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 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.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Magical and haunting, The Piano has the power and delicate mystery of a gothic fairy tale. [19 Nov 1993]
Washington Post 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.
Read Full Review >The New Yorker 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]
Wall Street Journal Julie Salamon
With its breathtaking visual style and careful attention to sound and movement, the movie provokes contemplation about the ways people communicate – through words, through music, through sex, and, most significantly, through touch. [14 Dec 1993, p.A14(E)]
Time Richard Corliss
Campion has spun a fable as potently romantic as a Bronte tale. But The Piano is also deeply cinematic. [22 Nov 1993]
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
It takes exceptional acting to enable a story like this to take hold, and Campion has gotten it here. [19 Nov 1993]
Variety David Stratton
The Piano confirms Campion as a major talent, an uncompromising filmmaker with a very personal and specific vision.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The wonder of The Piano is that such an outwardly simple story could emerge into such a complex swirl of lingering memories.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader 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.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)
Campion's eye is extraordinary. She searches out the detail that makes the image, and the image that tells the story more eloquently than words ever could.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor 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]
ReelViews James Berardinelli
A solid motion picture with a universal message and occasional splashes of genius, but it is remarkable only as Holly Hunter's performance is concerned.
Read Full Review >The New Republic Stanley Kauffmann
An overwrought, hollowly symbolic glob of glutinous nonsense... I haven't seen a sillier film about a woman and a piano since John Huston's "The Unforgiven" (1960), a Western in which Lillian Gish had her piano carried out into the front yard so she could play Mozart to pacify attacking Indians. [13 Dec 1993]
What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 36 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Matt G gave it a10:
Haunting, beautiful, poetic, unforgettable. Holly Hunter gives one of the greatest performances of all time, and this is my personal favorite movie of all time.
Lucia gave it a10:
A lush film with excruciating attention to photography including shadows. Attention is drawn to the sounds and visuals like some amazing artist has waved a wand and you can't get your eyes off the trail of light left in the air. You care about all the characters. I do wish a little more attention had been paid to the aboriginal tribe that co-habited the area - there was a mystique about them as well as everything and everyone else. The film is in a word, beautiful.
Dr Rhythm gave it a1:
Possibly the worst film I have ever seen and certainly the closest I have ever come to walking out of a cinema. It's appalling junk that has attracted an extraordinary amount of what I call "Emperor's New Clothes" reviewing. Given it a 1 because it's well shot but otherwise it gets a fat zero - horrible!
antoñete gave it a10:
Perfect movie!!!! I love this!!!!! The music, the cinematography, Holly, Anna Paquin... The script itself, the poetic images... I can't forget this movie.
sohyun w. gave it a4:
If you play piano, put this one on the bottom of your list to watch. However, it is nice to watch on a rainy day, but don't go out of your way. Some parts were quite cheezy and I didn't like the weird, erotic scenes. I would rather see Amadeus for the 43rd time or watch my sisters play piano gracefully without words. Acting by Anna is superb. The rest of the cast... too boring and familiar.
neezy k. gave it a10:
Perfect!
Ryan B. gave it a9:
An amazing piece supported with an amazinbg acting team. Anna Paquin, wow! Holly Hunter, perfect! Sam Neil, intense. A well told story show some serious and emotional issuse in a time of uncertainty in early New Zealand. Michael Nymans score truly became Ada's voice.
