Rating: 
Summary: A film that will stay with your for weeks afterwards.
Review: I was delighted to finally pick up this DVD after having seen this film several years ago. What I remembered most about this work was that it put me into a reflective mood for several weeks.This film is likely to have you thinking about what things and people are most important in your life, what priorities do you put on them, and how living for what you truly want is the best way to live. Ada arrives with her daughter on the beach in New Zealand. She has brought all kinds of things that are grossly impractical in the jungle like environment...one thing is her piano. Even though Ada is mute, we hear her thoughts via voice over and via her playing of the piano. Ada is forced through the cirucumstances of her life to question what sort of relationship will make her happy -- that of her new spouse, a perfectly polite and supportive gentleman, and that of a rogue Harvey Keitel, one who goes to great lengths to prostitute Ada's need to express herself via her piano. A strong performance by all, including Ada's daughter. Eventually Ada makes her choice and leaves the audience wandering if they have made their choices appropriately. This is a DVD worth owning, not one to rent. I would characterize this as a chick flick, but not one full of relationship talk -- after all, the main character is mute.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful story, well acted and well directed.
Review: It is the 1800's, after all, and the fate of women who produce children out of wedlock is expected to be grim--all the more so if she is "one of God's dumb creatures"; i.e., mute. So Ada's father probably thought he was doing her an enormous favor to get her married to a prosperous farmer in New Zealand. Sam Neill plays the farmer who probably does love Ada a bit, but who seems more concerned that he has been bilked in a deal when she did not return his ardor. Keitel is brilliant, as always, as Baines, the European who has "gone native" and now feels his own ethnic roots calling to him for apparently the first time in years. Paquin shows promise of great things to come as the daughter-turned-vengeful brat when her mother actually dares to show intense feelings for anyone other than her offspring. In the end this is a tale of the redemption of the human spirit as Ada (Hunter) learns to love and trust a man again (albeit not her own husband), her husband finally learns the difference between family and property, and Baines finds his longings fulfilled through his ability to sacrifice satisfaction of his own needs for the safety and happiness of the woman he loves. Fine performances by all involved, including the supporting cast of transplanted UK eccentrics who give just the right comic touch to a very weighty story. A triumph of a film, the ending of which is slightly Chaucrian when Baines learns that the best way to have your way with a woman is to let her have her way first. Well done, Campion! You created a masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Totally overrated
Review: When this film was released, all the guys I knew kept mentioning how wonderful it was. So I went to see it, but was unimpressed. When I mentioned this, most of them admitted they hadn't really enjoyed it either, but that they always told women they thought it was great, because "women love that movie." Well, this one didn't. I should mention that I did love Jane Campion's "An Angel at My Table". And it's clear that a lot of effort went into making "The Piano". It's too bad, since the results aren't enlightening or uplifting. In fact, there doesn't seem to be much of a point; it's just sort of gratuitously sordid. (The "Keitel-without-pants" scenes don't help. That's a little more of him than I needed to see.) Check it out if you're curious, but don't feel bad if you don't like it. Despite the hype, you're not the only one.
Rating:
Summary: Beautifully made, but feminist drivel
Review: I enjoyed Campion's effective imagery, which was often striking, and the performances, but the central theme of this film - A Woman Finding Her Voice In The Male Dominated Society - is nothing but Oprah-style feminist psychobabble. Enjoy the imagery, but take the message with a grain of salt.
Rating:
Summary: Misunderstood -- a masterpiece
Review: This is a haunting, lyrical, magical piece of film-making. The movie masterfully shows the wonders and terrors of forbidden/ unconventional/ unexpected love. Campion explores sexual dominance, guilt, repression, brutality and tenderness. The most captivating seduction on screen -- an intellectual/sensual romance.
Rating: 
Summary: The need to be understood
Review: Holly Hunter was excellent. She spoke to me even though she never said a word. I felt her pain and her need to be excepted for who she really was. Harvey was my hero in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Modern Masterpiece
Review: Few films of the 90's come close to this one. It stars Holly Hunter in a performance which earned her the Oscar and the Best Actress prize at Cannes among many other awards. It is the story of a self imposed mute who moves to New Zealand with her small daughter to marry a landowner. Baines, a neighbor, becomes infatuated with Ada and after obtaining Ada's beloved piano, her only means of communications, he promises to give it back in exchange for sexual favors. The film is very intelligent and never exploitive. The performances are top notch, from Sam Neill to Harvey Keitel to Academy Award winner Anna Paquin, who gives one of the best performances when it comes to a child's acting.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful and Haunting!
Review: This is a brilliant movie. While not a 'chick flick' it does look at things from a woman's point of view but that is what makes it more intense, romantic, poetic and moving. Beautiful dream-like cinematography and score make the New Zeland coast and jungles come alive. Beautiful ensemble acting by the 4 leads especially Anna Paquina and Holly Hunter. Sam Neill is also great as the husband who slowly goes insane, and Harvey Keitel surprised me in this un-typical role for him, he's always been a great actor and this is proof of it. Beautifully filmed poetic scenes and a special 'women's touch' courtesy of Jane Campion. From a scale of 1-10 I give this movie a 9!
Rating:
Summary: The Piano
Review: This is one of the best movies I've ever seen. The acting is superb and before I never thought much about Harvey Kaitel, but since this movie, I don't miss anything he's in.
Rating: 
Summary: Such Mixed Feelings
Review: The cinematography is stunning, the scenery beautiful, and the performances magical. Yet... maybe the entire problem with this film is the way in which many people dismissed it as a "chick flick." World film is summarily divided into "chick flicks," which contain scenes of people talking, and "guy flicks" (not what I wanted to say, but they wouldn't print the correct term!), which contain scenes of people doing anything more energetic than talking. While this is most pronounced in American film, it is hardly limited to anything made here (Romance, the recent French film, is a perfect example.) The Piano, in a way, was doomed from the start. There was nowhere for Ada to go but into nice wifely submission to somebody, preferably someone she loved who didnt' cut off her finger(!)She wasn't going to run off to join the Maori. She wasn't going to take a boat back to Scotland by herself. Her elective mutism (the medical term) was not going to be explained, and the book isn't one bit better in this regard. So, there was poor Ada, stuck in a chick flick, unable to really act or think or decide for herself. This central problem is what really causes my uneasiness about the movie, and I suspect the same is true of others.
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