KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

Bluebell Alcock Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Beulah Bram A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

LCShackley Damien Chazelle must have had a horrible time with music lessons growing up; at least that's my guess after seeing his screenplays for WHIPLASH and GRAND PIANO. The plot is a mix of SPEED, THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH, and PHONE BOOTH. Who is the mystery man who threatens a concert pianist unless he plays a flawless performance? That portion of the plot unravels fairly well, with a few "aha" moments. But the movie's riddled with errors, from the bizarre drive through Chicago (up and down several fairly close streets, but lasting from day until night), to the concert which starts at 9:30 (what?), to the talky conductor who's more like a game show host, to the concerto that conveniently has piano-free moments allowing the star to vanish offstage for long stretches at a time, to the "impromptu" song by a soprano in a box seat which somehow the orchestra has parts for. The music itself is laughable: a symphonic mess of various styles, none of which is terribly difficult for the pianist. Some of the cinematography is nicely executed, but overall it's a pretty silly exercise that would have made a fun TV episode. As others have noted, it's a short film extended by 12 minutes of credits. Elijah Wood and the camera operator do a good job of "faking" the piano parts. It's harmless fun, not to be taken seriously.

Daniel Symonds Haiku Review-A guilty pleasure- An interesting concept- Says what on the boxI have to write ten lines, so I figure I should probably say a bit more . I liked this film, not a lot more to say. Well I guess you should probably watch it. I hope this is not considered "junk words". Y'see I only really want to write haikus. Perhaps that's not intellectual for ya'll. Doesn't really matter. Is this ten lines? Not yet. Also I spelt the word "Haiku" wrong. Sorry IMDb. Still not ten lines. So yeah Eijah Wood- is that his name?- he seems a pretty solid guy. Made a decent film. 6/10. Cool. Kinda short. Is that ten lines enough for you? NO! Appears I have to spell Haiku right before I post.

jimbo-53-186511 Having been in retirement for the past 5 years, stage-fright suffering pianist Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood) decides to return to the stage to perform a few recitals as part of a comeback. However, he soon learns that there is an assassin in the auditorium who will shoot him if he misses a note.I generally watch a lot of films blind now and tend to only look at the rating after I've watched a film. I do consider myself a bit of a cynic and I usually find that my own rating comes in lower than the average user IMDb rating, but man I was wrong with this film. I expected it to be at least 7.0, but was shocked that it only has an IMDb rating of 5.9. Really?? Yes if we're totally honest the plot line isn't entirely original - it reminded me a lot of Phone Booth, but I'm prepared to look past that and just judge this film on how much it entertained me and it did that in bucket loads. Elijah Wood is part of the success here as he's already jittery and nervous before he even enters the Auditorium (which isn't helped by him possibly receiving the worst pep talk ever prior to arriving at the Auditorium). Once Tom arrives at the Auditorium the suspense rarely lets up and we're immediately plunged into a psychological battle of wits between Tom and the would be assassin. I've never been a huge fan of Elijah Wood, but he was excellent here and is really convincing in his respective role and rarely puts a foot wrong. In terms of plotting, I think what gives this film a slight edge over Phone Booth is that the assassins motivations are kept from the audience for most of the running time and this is just one hook that makes it very easy to get involved in the story. The assassins motives do become clear and are perhaps more simplistic than you may think.There are a couple of minor blots with this film and the first obvious problem is unoriginality (but when a film is this intense and involving that really doesn't bother me that much). Character development is perhaps a little sparse, but again who really cares when a film is this entertaining? Other than that though, I'm struggling to find anything else that I didn't like about this film.Having watched Whiplash recently and not liking it very much I was pleasantly surprised that the same person who penned this film penned Whiplash a year later. Whereas Whiplash was a rather repetitive, obnoxious, overrated film with a totally ridiculous premise. Grand Piano is a massively underrated thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining film with a more believable premise. It's rare that I side with the critics, but I think they're right in mostly praising this film as it is a very entertaining film. Ignore the 5.9 rating - it's a much better film than that rating suggests.

perkypops If you like funky piano music then the opening credits are worth the admission fee, but from thereon this film heads downhill fast. The film is murdered by its many clumsy plot movements, until you are left hoping there is a punchline to make it all worthwhile. But there isn't. Indeed the end is the clumsiest part of the film, and it is not as if the actors make anymore sense of anything than we do.Okay there is some nice music to listen too, but, for the rest, it isn't that good to look at, and it tries to be clever with plot distractions that fail miserably.I will not be watching it again to see what I may have missed.