114 - Grand Piano

    A concert pianist plays his comeback show, but he performs under duress, as a sniper threatens to kill him and his wife unless he performs flawlessly.
    The premise sounds kind of ridiculous.  And the movie takes a few steps that stretch believability, but it’s actually a pretty good movie.  It reminds me of a modern Hitchcock premise.  The script is tight, and it moves much faster than I expected it to.  There are still some problems with the script, and they are probably there because of how fast it works.  There isn’t much time spent on exposition early in the movie.  When it finally comes time to find out more about the villain, his motivations seem forced.  It’s not terrible, but it’s the kind of clunky dialogue that it’s hard to keep from laughing at.
    There’s another problem that I’m not sure how I feel about.  The villain is only heard for most of the movie.  He’s finally revealed in the last ten minutes or so.  And when we see him, he doesn’t get much of a chance to act - it’s all action.  I’m not sure how I feel about this.  A faceless villain is interesting, but revealing him at the end is strange.  It isn’t a reveal - it’s not a person we’re supposed to recognize.