Grand Piano

Here's a director who knows how to shoot a film and he directed the hell out of this silly script, but you can throw the fanciest camera tricks at a dog of a script -- but good looking nonsense is still nonsense. This is one of those high concept screenplays that seems churned out by an automated software writing program, not a human who actually sat down to write this. Elijah Wood gives a one note (pun!) performance and he's either miscast or just downright boring as our lead - though his hands do a convincing job. An off screen for most of the film John Cusack is our villain who will shoot Mr. Wood and his pretty little wife if he plays a wrong note. Cusack's expository dialogue over the last act of the film, explaining his motives are eye rolling and the remaining 15 minutes seem like the automated writing software malfunctioned when character motivation and narrative collided. A dumb, harmless film.