
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, December 25, 1993                   TAG: 9312240122
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: By MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`THE PIANO' IS TOO SLOW TO PLEASE EVERYONE

In recent weeks, "The Piano" has picked up serious critical awards left and right, and earlier this year it was a big hit at film festivals. No surprise there; this is just the kind of artful, beautifully made, sexy picture that plays well with those who want to be challenged.

For the same reasons, it's not going to be popular with a mainstream audience. The film is too slow, too posed and too different for casual entertainment. And despite the quality of the production, it's emotionally cool and distant; a movie that's admirable but hard to care about.

The story itself is so unusual that it's almost impossible to identify with the characters or their situation. For reasons that are never explained, Ada (Holly Hunter), a Victorian Scotswoman, has decided not to speak. She immigrates to New Zealand where she will marry Stewart (Sam Neill), a man she has never met. Flora (Anna Paquin), her daughter from a previous relationship, also unexplained, accompanies her. Ada brings along her prized piano, upon which she plays incongruous New Age music.

But when Stewart meets her, he explains that it will be impossible to carry the instrument through the jungle to their house, and so it must be left there on the beach. Later, his neighbor Baines (Harvey Keitel), an illiterate man who has "gone native" to a degree, arranges a deal. He trades a plot of land to Stewart in exchange for the piano and lessons from Ada.

He's got more than music on his mind.

Australian writer-director Jane Campion spins out the love triangle in slow, intimate detail. It's a pace that will strike some viewers as absolutely right for this sort of meditative erotic story. To others, it will be leaden and obsessed with the trivial at the expense of action.

Any viewer who's not familiar with the political situation of 19th-century New Zealand will be confused by the hints of conflict between the European settlers and the native Maori population. That aspect of the plot, like so many others, is presented without background explanation.

The story itself must be a metaphor for something beyond the desire of women to have men move heavy furniture. It probably has to do with an oppressive patriarchical society that won't allow females to have a voice, or something to that effect. The ending is equally problematical. After one groan-inducing contrivance, it goes curiously flat.

Perhaps it's wrong to be too critical by applying the usual standards of plot and character, but they are important to moviegoers. Those who go to "The Piano" expecting to see a conventional love story will be frustrated.

The Piano: **

A Miramax release playing at the Grandin Theatre. 121 min. Rated R for nudity, sexual content, violence.

by CNB