This English-language Spanish production from director Eugenio Mira wears its Hitchcockian aspirations on its sleeve. The great man himself could probably have taken the silly, overblown script and turned it into a nail-biting master class in suspense. Mira isn’t quite so successful. Writer Damian Chazzelle treats the premise with intense seriousness but the execution is so hysterically melodramatic that it’s often unintentionally amusing. That said, once it gets going it’s easy to get caught up in the drama and find yourself drifting towards the edge of your seat.
The set-up sees Elijah Wood convincing enough as preternaturally talented and world renowned concert pianist Tom Selznick who’s giving a performance to a record breaking, sell-out audience. Tom’s suffering from stage-fright so when he receives a note telling him that he’s being watched by a sniper and if he plays one wrong note he’ll have his head blown off it doesn’t really help. Eventually he gets told to put in an earpiece and finds himself talking to an off-screen John Cusack who’s basically ripping off Kiefer Sutherland’s performance in Phone Booth and whose reason for threatening the poor pianist turns out to be completely and utterly ridiculous.
Grand Piano takes a far too long to get going with a dreary, drawn-out setup, which makes you think the whole thing is going to be a chore. But once Wood gets on stage and starts playing the pace picks up and rattles along quickly enough that you don’t have time to acknowledge the fact that it doesn’t really make any sense. Considering 90% of the film takes place on a stage Mira does an admirable job of preventing it from feeling stagey, with every trick in the Hitchcock playbook, including a Saul Bass style title sequence.
The cast are mainly giving it their all, especially Wood who apparently was so dedicated he even learned to play the piano for real. The same can’t really be said for Cusack who when he eventually, briefly appears on screen just looks bored and irritated that he’s had to step out of the recording booth. For me though the really exciting cast member was Alex Winter, who so seldom appears in movies these days that it’s always a pleasure to see him. Although here he’s playing such a shady character that it almost tarnishes the good name of Bill S. Preston Esquire.
Overall Verdict: This is a very silly but pretty solidly entertaining thriller that just about earns the description Hitchcockian’. Once it gets going it’s fast-paced, exciting, occasionally unintentionally funny and once it’s over instantly forgettable. Worth a rental.
Special Features:
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Reviewer: Adam Pidgeon