Review of The Piano

The Piano (1993)
2/10
Is there something I'm not getting?
14 December 2008
A vaguely pornographic account of a love triangle between three completely repellent people. The woman hasn't spoken in years, but is absolutely obsessed with her piano, seeming to care more about it than about any living person. Her emotions are expressed in either childish outbursts or soft caresses, depending on what point the filmmakers want to make. The husband himself is clearly SUPPOSED to be repellent. We know this because he combs his hair, because he doesn't hold much stock in Aboriginal superstition, and because . . . well, I don't know, just because the movie needs an annoying white guy so it can argue that it's bad to discriminate against people. The love interest, meanwhile, is downright creepy, lying under the piano and looking up the woman's skirt, but he's apparently supposed to be cool and dashing. And don't get me started on the Aborigines, at once held up as trophies of natural living and made "exotic" in a manner that mostly involves making them seem stupid. I confess I cannot figure out what anyone could have liked about this film.
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