90 Days of Oscar Nominees #75 – The Piano (1993)

In my attempt to have a more prolific repertoire of Oscar Nominated Films, I have taken it upon myself to watch 90 new Best Picture Nominees that I’ve never seen before between 5 Dec 2017 and The 90th Annual Oscars on 4 Mar 2018.

Here is my 75th review of the 90 chosen Films…

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“Ada, wait. Wait. Do you know how to bargain? There’s a way you can have your piano back. Do you want it back? Do you want it back? You see, I’d like us to make a deal. There’s things I’d… like to do while you play. If you let me, you can earn it back. What do you think? One visit for every key. ” – George

Number of Times Seen – 2 (1 Feb 2005 and 14 Feb 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A mute widow and her daughter are sent to New Zealand in order to be married to a rich landowner who pays no attention to her.

My Take on it – This is a film that I saw over a decade ago and wasn’t really looking forward top seeing again because I recall finding it extremely boring.

Upon rewatching it, I can once again agree that parts of it as really boring but that largely has to do with the extremely slow pacing of the story since the overall premise is actually quite fascinating.

The slow pacing though hurts the impact that such a story can illicit.

The cast is great jhere with Holly Hunter, Anna Paquin, Harvey Keitel and Sam Neill all giving great performances.

Hunter and Paquin both won Oscars for these roles which is even more amazing than one would think since her character is mute so besides narration from her, she must strive to show us her thoughts and emotions via the way her characters acts physically.

In addition to the two acting wins, this film also was able to win Best Original screenplay.

It was nominated for an additional 5 Oscars, but lost nearly all of them to Schindler’s List (1993), which tore through the awards that year

Bottom Line – Great premise that moves along at an extremely slow pace which hurts its impact. The cast is great with Hunter, Neill, Kietel and Paquin all giving great performances.  Nominated for 8 Oscars that year and managed to win 3 of them for Actress (Hunter), Supporting Actress (Paquin) and Original Screenplay, but it had no chance in the rest of its categories since it was up against Schindler’s List (1993) which plowed through it’s awards that year. Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Despite winning an Oscar at a young age, Anna Paquin admitted on Late Show with David Letterman (1993), in 2009, that she had only recently watched the film for the first time at the time of the interview. She was not allowed to watch the film at the time of its release, because of its sexual content, being eleven-years-old at the time. (From IMDB)

Rating – Globe Worthy (7/10)

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