The Piano Review
Jan. 18th, 2006 09:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearJust watched The Piano.
The TV has been off for five minutes and I'm still trying to hold down my dinner. That was one of the most horrifying films I've ever seen. Every time I thought things couldn't get any worse, it ratcheted up to a higher level of horror.
Baines' manipulation of Ada's love of the piano so as to force her to have sex with him was bad enough. Her deciding that she actually loved him was worse. Then came the attempted rape by Stewart in the forest (I always thought that Sam Neill being a bad guy would be highly disturbing and I was bloody right!), followed by Ada's hesitant and obviously unwilling advances towards him, which she saw as the only way to survive. Using the little girl as a go-between lost me any sympathy for Ada, but Stewart's maiming of both the piano and her was still incredibly shocking. The decision to ditch the piano into the sea was predictable and, although not exactly the jolliest of endings, I could have accepted Ada's suicide as a fitting conclusion to what had gone before. The supposedly blissful coda of her new life in Nelson had my jaw on the floor - how are we expected to accept that a healthy relationship could come out of that beginning?
I've seen the word "uplifting" applied to this film - it must be a different one to the one I watched. It just made me feel ill from beginning to end.
The TV has been off for five minutes and I'm still trying to hold down my dinner. That was one of the most horrifying films I've ever seen. Every time I thought things couldn't get any worse, it ratcheted up to a higher level of horror.
Baines' manipulation of Ada's love of the piano so as to force her to have sex with him was bad enough. Her deciding that she actually loved him was worse. Then came the attempted rape by Stewart in the forest (I always thought that Sam Neill being a bad guy would be highly disturbing and I was bloody right!), followed by Ada's hesitant and obviously unwilling advances towards him, which she saw as the only way to survive. Using the little girl as a go-between lost me any sympathy for Ada, but Stewart's maiming of both the piano and her was still incredibly shocking. The decision to ditch the piano into the sea was predictable and, although not exactly the jolliest of endings, I could have accepted Ada's suicide as a fitting conclusion to what had gone before. The supposedly blissful coda of her new life in Nelson had my jaw on the floor - how are we expected to accept that a healthy relationship could come out of that beginning?
I've seen the word "uplifting" applied to this film - it must be a different one to the one I watched. It just made me feel ill from beginning to end.
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no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 09:46 am (UTC)Never really had the urge to see it and have even less of an urge now ...
Do you mind if I friend your journal? I'm pretty new to LJ so I'm not sure of the etiquette of friending almost complete strangers (although we met at Andy and Claire's at New Year and I've been reading your and Dave's LJs for a while - I tend to trawl Andy's friends list when I'm bored at work :)),
no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 02:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 02:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 02:32 pm (UTC)The movie advocates sexual abuse as a good way to start up a relationship - not a five star theme in my book!
no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 02:45 pm (UTC)(but I agree, abuse not usually the way to hit on someone :-)
Am struggling to remember a review for something you really liked though! :-)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 03:50 pm (UTC)In the four months I've been writing this live journal, I have reviewed:
14 films - 10 positive, 4 negative
8 books - 6 positive, 2 negative
For the edification of your struggling memory, the films I have reviewed positively are:
Brokeback Mountain
Schindler's List
Narnia
Harry Potter 4
Strangers On A Train
Legend of Zorro
Elizabethtown
12 Angry Men
Wallace & Gromit
Night Watch
Just because the two negative book reviews were for the ones you gave me does not mean I automatically hate everything I see or read! :o)
no subject
Date: 2006-01-19 05:36 pm (UTC)I bow to the power of market research!
Maybe I'm still sore about the Maison Ikkoku and Unfortunate Events reviews! :-)
BTW - you should see 'The Libertine' it has a performing monkey, which made me think of Mikei!