Grand Piano (2014)

The plot in a sentence: a piano player has to play an 'impossible' piece perfectly or a bunch of people are gonna get whacked.Now put that in your pocket and forget about it. I'm serious; if I hear one more person whining about the silly plot, I'm going to strangle someone with a low A string.To make a point, let me throw a different plot-in-a-sentence at you: two strangers agree that they'll each commit murder for the other guy. I'm sure the silly-o-meter is lighting up, but cinephiles will recognize that plot from the classic Hitchcock masterpiece "Strangers on a Train". Hitchcock himself joked how insignificant a plot can be, introducing the concept "mcguffin", something that doesn't necessarily exist but is the motivation behind all the characters' actions. Like a box that everyone's killing each other over.Why am I harping on Hitchcock? Because "Grand Piano" is perhaps the most loving tribute to Hitchcock that I've seen in my life. This means it's a throwback to the days when thrillers didn't need 29 plot twists, 54 explosions and 3.75 sex scenes to keep audiences awake. The audience's enjoyment came via the filmmaker's technique at telling a story. If you've ever been at a campfire when your spooky uncle Greg tells the story of "the claw" for the millionth time, to the delight of everyone present, you know what I mean.So now let's talk about the storytelling presentation. I'm trying hard not to slip into film dweeb mode, because the technical points of this film are so stunning I could ramble for hours. Camera shots are carefully planned and orchestrated without distracting edits, meaning the camera often follows the action for several minutes before jumping to another angle. This is reminiscent of the famous Orson Welles "Touch of Evil" opening where the camera runs for nearly 4 minutes through city streets and dialogue closeups before a cut. Or how about Hitchcock's own "Rope", a 2 hour suspense thriller with only 10 camera cuts. Here in "Grand Piano" such scenes are prevalent, and the best one has to be the "Wayne" scene which follows the character Wayne frantically running through the theater for help while the action on the stage remains in the background. No cuts. If you're wondering how the eff they managed to do that, check out the movie.Another piece of technical WOWery which you might not consider at first is that actor Elijah Wood is really playing the piano. In real life Elijah is a casual pianist who had to take a 3 week crash course in how to play the parts in his scenes, which often involve dialogue and physical action while staying right in time with the music he's playing with his hands. If you're one of those people who hates it when actors can't fake their instruments, rest assured this is very convincing. The director himself is a musician so you can bet he insisted on getting things right.Which leads me to my overall feeling about this film. It is extremely precise. Not a scene is wasted, and every element is carefully orchestrated like, well, like an orchestra. Basically the entire film unfolds in real time, as Elijah ("Tom") tries to make it through 3 movements of a classical performance without too many bodies piling up. The movie's "soundtrack" is actually the music that's being played by the orchestra as the story unfolds. That itself is an original and very impressive feat, if you consider every scene has to by synchronized with the mood of the performance piece.What makes "Grand Piano" extra fun is that the movie is not afraid to make fun of itself a bit. There's some nice humor and a sort of lighthearted cheekiness to it, even though there might be a few brutal killings going on. You could almost call this a "dark comedy" except that all the classic thrillers were dark comedies, so such a label would be redundant. It should be noted that Hitchcock himself had a wonderfully morbid sense of humor, and here the director upholds that spirit as well the classic storytelling style. Anyone taking this plot too seriously should be hung from the rafters with rusty bolts and dangled over an orchestra pit playing fortissimo. Oh wait, that might've happened in the movie.The acting. I won't dwell on Elijah Wood's amazing performance except to note that prior to this film I hadn't seen much of his work, and this movie made me an instant fan. John Cusack is... well, John Cusack. He's one of those actors like Christopher Walken who can sneeze and make it an Oscar winning performance. Although he doesn't get a ton of screen time here, he scenes were gripping. Another actor who deserves major kudos for bringing to life the terrifying/hilarious/lovable henchman character is Alex Winter (wait for it... wait for it... BILL from "Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure"!) Omg he gets my vote for best bad guy sidekick since Jaws in James Bond Moonraker. And finally I have to tip my hat to "Wayne" (Allen Leech) and his barbie-doll manipulative girlfriend "Ashley" (Tamsin Egerton) who are a real treat to watch.This movie has so many fun things going on, you forget how technically masterful it is. Like the old thrillers of the 40s & 50s, that's the way it's supposed to be. It's a funny irony that a Spanish production does the best justice to the golden age of Hollywood.

Haiku Review-A guilty pleasure- An interesting concept- Says what on the boxI have to write ten lines, so I figure I should probably say a bit more . I liked this film, not a lot more to say. Well I guess you should probably watch it. I hope this is not considered "junk words". Y'see I only really want to write haikus. Perhaps that's not intellectual for ya'll. Doesn't really matter. Is this ten lines? Not yet. Also I spelt the word "Haiku" wrong. Sorry IMDb. Still not ten lines. So yeah Eijah Wood- is that his name?- he seems a pretty solid guy. Made a decent film. 6/10. Cool. Kinda short. Is that ten lines enough for you? NO! Appears I have to spell Haiku right before I post.

Having been in retirement for the past 5 years, stage-fright suffering pianist Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood) decides to return to the stage to perform a few recitals as part of a comeback. However, he soon learns that there is an assassin in the auditorium who will shoot him if he misses a note.I generally watch a lot of films blind now and tend to only look at the rating after I've watched a film. I do consider myself a bit of a cynic and I usually find that my own rating comes in lower than the average user IMDb rating, but man I was wrong with this film. I expected it to be at least 7.0, but was shocked that it only has an IMDb rating of 5.9. Really?? Yes if we're totally honest the plot line isn't entirely original - it reminded me a lot of Phone Booth, but I'm prepared to look past that and just judge this film on how much it entertained me and it did that in bucket loads. Elijah Wood is part of the success here as he's already jittery and nervous before he even enters the Auditorium (which isn't helped by him possibly receiving the worst pep talk ever prior to arriving at the Auditorium). Once Tom arrives at the Auditorium the suspense rarely lets up and we're immediately plunged into a psychological battle of wits between Tom and the would be assassin. I've never been a huge fan of Elijah Wood, but he was excellent here and is really convincing in his respective role and rarely puts a foot wrong. In terms of plotting, I think what gives this film a slight edge over Phone Booth is that the assassins motivations are kept from the audience for most of the running time and this is just one hook that makes it very easy to get involved in the story. The assassins motives do become clear and are perhaps more simplistic than you may think.There are a couple of minor blots with this film and the first obvious problem is unoriginality (but when a film is this intense and involving that really doesn't bother me that much). Character development is perhaps a little sparse, but again who really cares when a film is this entertaining? Other than that though, I'm struggling to find anything else that I didn't like about this film.Having watched Whiplash recently and not liking it very much I was pleasantly surprised that the same person who penned this film penned Whiplash a year later. Whereas Whiplash was a rather repetitive, obnoxious, overrated film with a totally ridiculous premise. Grand Piano is a massively underrated thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining film with a more believable premise. It's rare that I side with the critics, but I think they're right in mostly praising this film as it is a very entertaining film. Ignore the 5.9 rating - it's a much better film than that rating suggests.

Grand Piano is one of those small, independent features that often no one pays mind to which is a darn shame. Essentially speaking, it is the little thriller that could. No doubt, it's a small film but this is a piece of art. The film is very similar to 2002's Phone Booth, but instead of a phone booth, it takes place on a piano during a concert. The movie is riveting, tense, features fine acting, and a tight screenplay by Damian Chazelle, whom we will meet later on in great detail. This film is about a gifted piano player named Tom Selznick who embarks on a comeback trail after spending several years in retirement and suffers from stage fright. However, a sniper leaves a note saying if he plays one wrong note, he will die. Elijah Wood delivers a fearful performance as Selznick. He hits all the right notes, figuratively and literally speaking. His paranoia is intense as he tries to find the identity of his killer. John Cusack, or I shall say mostly his voice, delivers a fine performance as the man who wants Tom to play all the right notes for a specific reason. Overall, Grand Piano is a riveting thriller and a better movie than the kind of release date would inspire. The screenplay was excellent and likewise for the acting. The ending could have been better as I felt the movie ended at the wrong time. An additional five minutes would suffice. But on the whole, this is the little thriller that could.My Grade: B+/A-