Review: Grand Piano (2014)

Snap Judgment: Characterized as Speed at the piano or Die Hard at a concert hall. It's not quite the high-octane blockbusters that those imply, but this is an exciting, entertaining movie nonetheless. Elijah Wood has the giant eyes of a perpetually startled chipmunk, so he looks appropriately anxious/terrified/surprised at all times. Elijah is a famous pianist with a terrible case of stage fright. At his last performance five years ago, he froze while playing his dead mentor's nearly impossible-to-play piece, "La Cinquette." For this performance, Elijah has shipped in his mentor's own piano. A mentor who was fabulously wealthy and whose fortune was never found. This film has set up an obvious collection of Chekov's guns, and they all go off at once. Elijah finds "Play one wrong note and you die" written in red on his sheet music. He quickly finds out that this is not a joke, and John Cusack is dead serious about it. For a man who is SO insistent that Elijah Wood not play any wrong notes, John Cusack sure chats a lot. Maybe you should try being silently menacing next time, okay John? Instead of always yelling I'M GOING TO KILL YOUR WIFE PLAY PERFECTLY OR BAM!! It cannot be helping Elijah's concentration. 

Grade: B+

Final Judgment: Nicely tense, nicely brief (only 1 1/2 hours!), and with suspenseful classical music built into its premise, this was a surprisingly worthwhile movie.

If you like this, watch: Hitchcock's oeuvre, Speed