Grand Piano (2013)

A pianist with stage fright endures a performance under the eyes of a mysterious sniper, who will shoot and kill him if a wrong note is played.

Director:

Eugenio Mira

Writer:

Damien Chazelle

Stars:

Elijah Wood, John Cusack, Kerry Bishé

5 wins & 12 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Elijah Wood	...	Tom Selznick
John Cusack	...	Clem
Kerry Bishé	...	Emma Selznick
Tamsin Egerton	...	Ashley
Allen Leech	...	Wayne
Don McManus	...	Norman Reisinger
Alex Winter	...	Assistant
Dee Wallace	...	A & V Interviewer
Jim Arnold	...	Janitor
Jack Taylor	...	Patrick Godureaux
Beth Rollan	...	Emma's Publicist (as Beth Trollan)
Amy Gwilliam	...	Emma's Assistant
Harris Gordon	...	Emma's Agent
Ricardo Alexander	...	Executive (as Richard A. Newby)
Brendan Murphy	...	Mover #1

Storyline

A pianist with stage fright endures a performance under the eyes of a mysterious sniper, who will shoot and kill him if a wrong note is played.

---

Plot Keywords:

stage | pianist | stage fright | die hard scenario | falling to death | 

---

Taglines:

Play one wrong note and you die.

---

Genres:

Music | Mystery | Thriller

---

Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some language

Details

Official Sites:

Official Facebook Official Site

Country:

Spain USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 October 2013 (Spain)

Also Known As:

Sans fausse note

Filming Locations:

Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,964, 9 March 2014

Gross USA:

$22,555

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$1,618,085

Company Credits

Production Co:

Nostromo Pictures, Solution Entertainment Group, Atresmedia Televisión

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The closing credit roll takes up 12 minutes of the 90-minute film.

---

Goofs

The big concert starts at 9:30 PM, a strange time for any concert, let alone a standard classical one.

---

Quotes

Clem: [via earpiece] You think you can bargain with me? You're not in control, Tom. The audience is control. And right now, I'm your audience.

---

Crazy Credits

At the end of the credit roll we hear The Impossible Piece being played while the title shows.

---

Connections

References Citizen Kane (1941)

---

Soundtracks

I Wanna Be Loved By You
(1928) (uncredited)
Songwritten By Herbert Stothart And Harry Ruby
Lyrics by Bert Kalmar
Performed by Spencer Kayden and Whistling by Rich Little

User Reviews

Thrilling premise - Disappointing execution

I have come watching "Grand Piano" right after the very similar movie "Whiplash", which I count to one of my most stunning movie experiences I had. "Grand Piano" on the other hand, was a very disappointing experience. However, this does not necessarily make it a bad movie.

The premise of "Grand Piano" is a very interesting one. A concert pianist with stage fright is getting blackmailed into playing a perfect piano concert, or he will be shot. A musical version of "Speed", with a bit less action, but a much more thrilling atmosphere, undermined by a dramatic orchestral soundtrack.

Sadly though, the premise is about everything this movie has to offer. The reason behind the blackmail is kind of forced and only serves to allow the premise, without much deeper thought behind it. This pattern can be transferred over to the whole movie. It's not bad, but there are an immense amount of missed opportunities. Instead of letting the orchestra a similar, overly dramatic style of music for the whole film, it could have been more dynamic and thus adding more facets to it. Having slow parts, loud parts, fast parts, silent parts, dramatic parts, melancholic parts, and so on, would have opened up to a much more rememberable atmosphere.

However the director decides to be one dynamic, and the result is a 90 minute long opera/film, that gets pretty boring halfway through because there's nothing unexpected to it.

And even still, I was packed watching the movie and wanted to see it concluded, aware of the obvious faults. The conclusion, however, was the worst of all. The movie feels the unnecessary need to include an action scene, destroying the tension, and eventually ends way too late, in an effort to make up for the bad ending. This terribly performed effort was the nail in the coffin, for what could've been a great movie.