Movie: Grand Piano (2013)

Grand Piano
Mystery, Thriller

I was already a bit jaded on this film after watching just the preview. I knew there would be lots of awesome piano playing which is what I was looking forward to. What I wasn't looking forward to was the thriller side of it... really? Play my pretty, or die! *evil laugh*

Tom, played by Elijah Wood (Lord of The Rings, Sin City) is the brightest piano player of his generation married to the brightest movie star of her generation (Kerry Bishe). Tom has been avoiding performing for 5 years after choking on stage, until his wife sets up a comeback concert. I would be so peeved at her for doing that. Not only does he have the pressure to play well after the failure of his last performance and his wife has set him up this lovely comeback, but he is also being threatened by some crazy person who just so happens to be played by John Cusack (High Fidelity, Being John Malkovich).

In saying all that... I did want this movie to be terrible... but it wasn't entirely. Even though Cusack is a disembodied voice for all but 5 minutes of the film and I actually thought it was all in the pianists head until people started dying, I didn't hate it. The plot was wafer thin and the one part that was interesting was cut off. It's not something I would normally pick up and enjoy... but it wasn't terrible... Kudos to Elijah Wood for actually playing most of those pieces, amazing. Can't say I'll be watching this again though, that's why it gets:

2 out of 5 conductors...