Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood) was a brilliant piano prodigy
until he had a nervous breakdown while attempting to play a daunting piece
composed by his mentor. Five years later, Selznick is set for his comeback
performance with a piano custom made for his now-deceased teacher, who
unfortunately went all Howard Hughes in his twilight years. The concert itself
would be stressful enough without smarmy radio interviewers (voiced by Dee
Wallace), snide comments from backstage workers, and Selznick being
overshadowed by his gorgeous movie star wife Emma (Kerry Bishé). Then, the real
bombshell drops when Selznick sees a warning in his music sheets written in
bold, red letters. If he misses one note, he will die. If he attempts to warn
anyone, his wife will die. Selznick finds out the hard way that there’s a
sniper (John Cusack) in the box seats and he means business. Much
of the story unfolds afterwards in real time.
That’s the premise for Grand
Piano, which may remind you of Phone
Booth or Speed on a stage. Yes,
the concept is ludicrous and there are plenty of plot points that don’t make
sense if you stick down to truly think about them. However, none of that
matters because Grand Piano is just
so damn fun. Damien Chazelle, who has recently earned acclaim for film festival
darling Whiplash, wrote the script
with direction by Eugenio Mira, who has clearly been studying his Hitchcock and
DePalma. Grand Piano is the type of
thriller Hitchcock plied his trade in and the concert hall setting is reminiscent
of the climax to The Man Who Knew Too
Much. Mira pays homage to DePalma, another Hitchcockian disciple, with split
screens and several dazzling tracking shots, including one that follows
Selznick through the backstage hallways and another that spins around him on stage.
Mira stylishly pans from the orchestra pit and up into the catwalks. Everything
is so impeccably blocked so that the audience is never confused about the
geography.
Elijah Wood is perfect as Selznick and his doe-eyed expressions
are exactly what is needed to convey fear and panic. There’s a great joy in
seeing John Cusack cast against type as the obsessed sniper, imagine if his
charming hitman from Grosse Pointe Blank
went bad. Cusack doesn't appear on screen until the final act, before then he's
just a menacing voice speaking through an earpiece Selznick is forced to grab
in between movement breaks. Rounding out the cast are character actor Don
McManus as the conductor, Downton Abbey's
Allen Leech as one of Emma's friends, and Alex Winter of Bill & Ted fame as an all-too friendly security guard.
Grand Piano shouldn't be taken too seriously and
the filmmakers luckily realize that too. This is an enjoyable B-movie stylishly
made and perfect for midnight madness screenings.
Rating: *** (*****)
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