Entertaining suspense movie packs intrigue and ordinary touches in Hitchcock style . Top-notch thriller embroils a famous pianist in killing and twisted intrigue . Having messed up at playing an extremely difficult piano piece a few years before, talented pianist Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood) lives with an extreme case of stage fright . Taking a step in the right direction and talked into it by his up and coming actress wife (Kerry Bishé) , Tom decides to give performing live another try . Already a mess, the situation is made much worse, when in the middle of playing a much easier musical number, Tom discovers a strange note written on his music sheet , the premise is the following : Play or Die .

Ultra-tense Spanish thriller starring Elijah Wood as a concert pianist who moments before his comeback performance suffers from stage fright and to discover that if he fails to play the music precisely as it was written , a nearly impossible feat in this case , then a sniper hidden in the theater will open fire. The picture is realized in Hitch wake , as it has a great number of elements and his own iconography : vertiginous height , innocent man wrongfully chased , blonde bombshells , voyeurism, long non-dialogue sequences , a matter of mistaken identity , MacGuffin ,etc. Do you know what a MacGuffin is, Maestro? It's a person or thing around which the entire film revolves and yet turns out to have little importance to the story . It's a magnificent device whereby a good plot can be given a driving force without the indecency of explanation . Grand Piano (2013),from director Eugenio Mira is an exciting film displaying suspense , intrigue , tension , and interesting drama well written by Damien Chazelle . Packs an ordinary theme of the suspense magician : innocent people become caught up in a cobweb intrigue and uncanny , intelligent villains . From the thrilling story and screenplay including literately and thoughtful dialog , the picture gets unlimited suspense in crescendo , tense , full of lingering frames and with the typical touches Hitchcock . And plenty of MacGuffins , as this picture is heavy with devices . A hidden threat, a hostage, an assistant, an unplayable piece of music, a stage, a key, and the unknown fortune of a deceased mentor .

Enjoyable mystery movie involves a bewildered pianist who hold numerous tricks in order to escape from a cruel killer and being chased cross hall concert and backstage . This agreeable picture by Eugenio Mira has a memorable scene after another and following the steps from master of suspense . This film has these particularities ; furthermore contains a fun intrigue , amusing situations and keeps the action at feverish pitch . Grand Piano is Hitchockian in the truer sense : It's a meticulously crafted piece of filmmaking that's wholly committed to a highly specific , somewhat outlandish premise . In addition , a colorful as well as evocative cinematography by Unax Mendia . Special mention to impressive and rousing musical score by Victor Reyes . The motion picture was well directed by Eugenio Mira (Agnosia , Birthday) and perfectly produced by Rodrigo Cortes (Buried , Red lights) . Mira played these elements like a concert pianist, perfectly timed with a soaring melody. Rating : Above average , well worth watching .

Here's a Spanish single-location thriller which received mixed reviews upon release. I'm a huge fan of that particular sub-genre of film-making and you might as well call this PHONE BOOTH with a piano. The story is about a famous concert pianist making a comeback who is challenged by a sniper not to play a single note wrong, or else he'll be shot dead. That's all there is to the story. It's a faintly ridiculous premise, and unfortunately the whole of the narrative is ridiculous and full of plot holes and unbelievable scenarios. The killer in the film has a plan so nonsensical that none of it hangs together at all. Therefore it's quite impressive to say that the film is still watchable despite these massive flaws, thanks in part to Elijah Wood's stoic performance as the put-upon lead.

The other issue I had with the film was the direction. Spanish director Eugenio Mira was obviously deathly afraid of making a film with a guy sitting at the piano for most of the running time boring, so he goes out of his way to keep his camera moving with lots of pans and quick-fire editing. It's a real distraction and feels very juvenile; keeping the camera still and letting the actors do their job would have been much better. The cast is a mixed bag with a subdued John Cusack effective in a mainly vocal performance and Alex Winter a lot of fun as an aide. However, Tamsin Egerton is dreadful as the friend character and Kerry Bishe isn't much better. If you can get past all the clichés and ludicrous scenes then you might just enjoy this, although at the end of the day they're too big to ignore.

Tom Selznick (Elijah Wood) is a concert pianist who has been away from public performances for 5 years due to stage fright. His wife Emma (Kerry Bishé) is a movie star eager for his return to the big stage. Her friend Ashley (Tamsin Egerton) is dismayed that she and Wayne (Allen Leech) are not sitting in the box seat. Tom has brought out his late mentor Patrick Godureaux's piano for the occasion. Godureaux's fortune disappeared after his death. As Tom starts to play, he notices markings on his sheet music. On one page, it says "Play one wrong note and you die." He is then contacted by a man (John Cusack) who threatens him and his wife.

The premise is interesting at first. Elijah Wood is good at being scared. The tension is good. However the more the movie reveals, the more problematic the premise becomes. The man should probably be able to figure a less public way to get what he wants especially considering who he is. It becomes an unconvincing thriller. Also Cusack should show up sooner. There's no point in hiding him since the audience doesn't know his character anyways. There are ways to make him more threatening. It's nice to see Alex Winter in this. He's very effective and I hope to see him in more movies as a bad guy henchman.