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Summary: Is There A Writen Version, Book?
Review: I loved the movie. And would Love to find out who wrote it and if the book has or will be published. If anyone has any info it would be greatly appreciated.
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Summary: CLIPPED WINGS
Review: I could not understand the hype about this film when I first saw it. It somehow just did not make sense, and I really don't know what I was expecting. A few years passed, I traveled to New Zealand and even visited Karekare beach where many scenes from the film were made. I read the script and then watched the film again and was stricken by so many things about it that I had not appreciated the first time. Holly Hunter won an Oscar for her performance, and although I am sure her role as the mute woman was challenging (and she was very expressive), I did not find her role the most interesting. More interesting were the roles of the excellent Sam Neill and Harvey Keitel. Of course without Hunter's role the supporting roles would not have been as meaty or convincing. But I have to say that Keitel's role as a subtle but firm near-native who falls in love with Hunter's character is clever and sometimes heartbreaking. He goes to outstanding lengths to spend time with Hunter, and eventually he gets what he wants. And eventually they do indeed fall in love, but his frustration along the way is clearly felt. The severe, stern, and controlling behaviour of Sam Neill's character is equally felt. He wants so much to make a family and home together with Hunter's character, but he cannot begin to bend or accommodate her in any way. He makes no effort to love, understand or get to know her really, which is why he ultimately and completely fails. Hunter can only find expression in music. Keitel encourages the music while Neill silences it. After Neill learns of her affair with Keitel he tries to keep her cooped up in the house. She gets her piano back, but she does not care anymore. She gives one of the piano keys to her young daughter (played by Anna Paquin, who won an Oscar for her role) to take to Keitel. Instead she takes them to Neill, feeling angry that Hunter is betraying not only Neill but also her, in a sense. Neill is so frustrated and angry he comes home and chops off some of Hunter's fingers. (The gorgeous soundtrack to the film has a song "I Clipped Your Wing" which alludes to this scene. There is no more perfect analogy to Neill's cutting off Hunter's fingers than to say he was clipping her wing). Eventually Hunter and Keitel leave New Zealand together, but Hunter tries to drown herself on their sailing away. She does not succeed. The story is both tragic and human, but it is also hopeful and imbued with enlightened performances from all the actors.
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Summary: Well, that was a waste of time....!
Review: I guess I'll have to join the ranks of the "great unwashed" who just don't appreciate films like this. I read where Ada was suppose to be so complex-not speaking and playing the piano well makes a person complex? I didn't think she even gave her new husband a chance (plus, what husband (even nowadays) is going to haul a piano up a jungle mountainside...they're a pain to move from one room to another!). All in all, I found this movie to be annoying. I liked Anna Paquin-she was very good, but one little girl doesn't a great movie make!
Rating: 
Summary: bad
Review: If you like contrived, pretentious, artsy sophomoric junk, then you'll like this. I didn't. The only reason I'm not giving it one star is Anna Paquin is great.
Rating:
Summary: "Gray" movie. Beautiful and weird.
Review: When I left the theater after watching the movie I walked for an hour drowned in thoughts. The film became right away one of my very favorites. I didn't like the happy ending. It seemed to have been designed to keep Hollywood happy, sacrificing the art for maybe money. Ada should have remained with her piano at the bottom of the sea.
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Summary: Women directors--this is how it's done!
Review: Even though Steven Spielberg released his magnum opus of Schindler's List in 1993 and walked away with the director's Oscar that year, Jane Campion became only the second woman in Academy history to be nominated for her superior achievement in direction of her work, The Piano, and was perhaps more deserving of the prestigious honor. Some are quick to dismiss this film as a "love triangle" story, and cannot fathom I would compare it to the scope and horror of the Holocaust. Read on, non-believers... In numerous ways, Campion's direction is more inventive than those who were nominated that year, and more passionate. The landscape of New Zealand is not merely a location, but comes to serve as a character when interacting with the people in the story. The tangled, mysterious bush of the wilderness becomes a metaphor for the complexity of emotion within the characters and the relationships in which they entwine themselves. The instrument of the piano and its songs come to serve as the soul of the heroine, Ada McGrath. Like the succulent rain ever-present in the film, the emotion literally drips from every frame of the film. This is where Campion most brilliantly succeeds. The story and original screenplay, which was purely Campion's, not only delves into the odd love triangle, but examines the makeup of an oddly unconventional woman who choses to be silent, yet through everything she does, proves to not be a silent victim of a time when women were little more than possessions to be traded and bartered through a simple exchange of letters. Even though Ada is signed over in marriage by her father precisely in this manner, we bravely witness a valiant soul who refuses to give love out of duty or obligation. The love which does flow from Ada is a turbulent force, and explores an eroticism not regularly shown in film, nor in a woman, nor in a woman of the late 19th century. The film is complimented brilliantly by the superb acting of Oscar winners Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin, along with Harvey Keitel and Sam Neill. The sweeping score by Michael Nyman is otherworldly yet soothingly familiar as the compositions lull the viewer into Ada's world and mind. This is as flawless as a film can be. Do not reduce it to a mere love triangle between two men and a woman; at the film's core, the relationships explore issues much more intense and subliminal than that. If you've ever questioned your feelings but weren't sure why, this film may bring you closer to understanding your own complexities within you. This film should be on everyone's top 10 list. I just wish all of Campion's films were this perfect!
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Summary: Thought provoking and Beautiful
Review: If you've ever felt trapped, unloved, or simply misunderstood, you should like this movie. Ada, a voluntary mute since childhood, has always expressed herself through her beloved piano. When she and her daughter (Anna Paquin) are shipped off to be married to a farmer (Sam Neil) in a alien jungle, Ada's (Holly Hunter) only solace is that her piano will be there also. The viewer knows immediately this marraige is off to rocky start when the farmer fails to realize Ada's affection and need for her piano and leaves the piano deserted on the beach. Harvey Keitel, a neighboring farmer falls for Ada. Unlike Neil, he realizes his only hope to win Ada's heart is through her piano. He brings the deserted piano to his house and though he knows it's wrong, he bargains with Ada...one key at a time. One sexual favor...one key. At first Ada is repulsed, but seeing and hearing her newly tuned piano is too much for her and reluctantly agrees to the bargain. You'll have to watch the movie to see is Keitel is successful in winning Ada's heart, or if she'll settle for the farmer who keeps a roof over her head, but knows little of a woman's heart, especially one so complex. Great cinematography, music, and acting all around.
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Summary: Now that's a man's man & a half . . .
Review: I initially rented this video so I could see another one of sexy Harvey Keitel's notoriously gratuitous full frontal nudity scenes - I'll be honest. But as I watched this film, I loved it more & more as the movie progressed! I remember seeing it with my older sister back in '93 & being bored out of my MIND - I was 14, talked all the way through it, & the only thing I remember about it was "the naked guy." Obviously, there is so much more TO this movie! When I really think about it, it seems that, simply put, there are hardly any happy endings in romantic movies anymore - and cheap, tacky sex scenes in movies are all too common. But this movie was inspiring! I cannot express the amount of joy I felt when Baines ultimately joined Ada - I didn't expect it. (I figured he just came along for the boatride to drop her off back home until I saw the end) The passion Baines showed Ada (particularly in the scene where she slapped him) brought to mind what I loved so much about "The Last of the Mohicans." That walk-through-fires-just-to-touch-you kind of lustfulness, sensuality, & eroticism sends CHILLS down my spine. Jane Campion is brilliant - and gushing is not my style. I loved this movie!!
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Summary: The Depths
Review: This is one of the worst films I have ever seen, female director or not. It features a mute who cannot figure out how to deal with an arranged marriage mate who is insensitive to her needs and another tattooed man who lusts for her, though quietly. She chooses the latter after the former does violence upon her hand -- with which she played the piano. This film shows what humanity is capable of sinking to, and then perhaps rising from slightly. But who cares! Some reviews say it is beautiful. It is not! People in period dress slipping around in the mud of some jungle. Inconsistant jungle cum hilltop jumps make the whole muddy thing seem low budget, and low concept. Try another film by a different director.
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Summary: The most utterly pointless movie I have ever seen
Review: There is virtually nothing positive to be said about this movie. Supposedly Harvey Keitel becomes the object of Holly Hunter's adoration because he treats her like a human being, unlike her husband. But there is no chemistry whatsoever between the two of them, and there is nothing said or done which would cause a normal viewer to identify with the romantic element. Furthermore, everyone is so busy orgasming over how "artistic" the movie is, that they have ignored the biggest single plot blunder I have ever seen in four decades of movie-going. The pivotal scene of the entire movie comes when the husband throws a tantrum because of a letter exchanged between his wife and Keitel. The problem with that is that when Keitel is first introduced, we are told that he can't read. Nothing in the subsequent "action" gives any indication that he has learned to read in the interim, or that the original information that he can't read was inaccurate. All those issues aside, the movie is simply unpleasant from start to finish, in almost every way a movie can be unpleasant. The backdrop of the movie is a rainforest of grey, sticky mud. The director seems to have a fetish for the process of female urination. Not a single character is a person you would want for your next door neighbor or co-worker. The best way of describing the movie is to apply the single word "unpleasant" to every character and every scene. A complete and unhappy waste of time.
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