Tom Selznick was viewed as one of, if not the most talented pianist of his generation, but a terrible case of stage fright kept stopped him from ever reaching her perceived heights. After a disastrous performance, Tom disappears completely from the public spotlight only to reemerge for a special, long-awaited concert in Chicago. With the love and support of his famous actress wife, Tom agrees to perform in front of a packed, but when he sits down to play he discovers a message written on the music sheets: "Play one wrong note and you die". Eugenio Mira's Grand Piano is a thrilling b-movie that manages to be fun and engaging regardless of its somewhat preposterous premise. Almost the entire film takes place in this giant concert hall with Tom conversing with the Sniper intent on killing him if he misses a single note. While some films could slowly become grating with this gimmicky approach, Grand Piano's cat-and-mouse game manages to keep a lot of its energy due to the film's direction. Eugenio Mira directs this film with a lot of style, using dutch angles, slick camera movements, juxtaposition and split-screens to create a immersive experience that puts the viewer directly into the psyche of our protagonist in a way that would make the likes of Hickcock or De Palma blush. The script itself is tight and fast-paced but unfortunately Grand Piano comes a little off the rails, rushing to a very unsatisfying explanation of the antagonist's intent that's simply uninteresting and generic, which in turn short-changes the viewer on everything Statad achieved early on.
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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