Play It Again, Jane.

"The Piano"

directed by Jane Campion

Miramax Films

Apiano stands alone on an empty swath of New Zealand beach while behind it a towering wall of seawaves threatens to obliterate it. That singularly haunting image is at the core of Jane Campion's new film "The Piano." The hoary proverb which states that a picture is worth a thousand words could not be more appropriate. The value of silence, of nonverbal communication, is essential to the theme of Campion's film, which depicts a world in which images and music count as much as words.

As "The Piano" begins, Ada McGrath (Holly Hunter) has become the mail-order bride of Alistair Stewart (Sam Neill), a farmer in the remote bush of nineteenth century New Zealand whom she has never met. Together with her nine-year-old daughter Flora (Anna Paquin) and her piano, Ada makes the long voyage by sea from Scotland to New Zealand. When Stewart arrives to meet her, he refuses to transport her piano to their house, leaving it on the beach.

Ada, who has been mute since the age of six and for whom the piano is her only voice, is devastated by its loss. She turns to George Baines (Harvey Keitel), an illiterate neighbor of theirs who has "gone native." Baines eventually makes a deal with Stewart, trading the piano for a piece of land. As part of the deal, Ada is forced to give Baines lessons. He's not interested in learning to play, and so he offers to give Ada back her piano if she allows him to do certain things while she plays, one key for every lesson. As the favors become increasingly sexual, their relationship grows ever more complex, eventually involving Stewart and Flora.

To reveal what happens would be unthinkable, for the surprises in the plot are one of the film's manifold pleasures. Campion has said that in writing the screenplay drew on the Bronte sisters. She is faithful to her inspiration, and the violent unleashing of passions and the consequences that follow are portrayed in a manner that does the author of Wuthering Heights proud. In the world portrayed by Campion, the characters have no defense against the passions that threaten to overtake them. They are foreigners transplanted to a strange new land where the senses rule. Life is overpowering here: the sea is wilder than in England, the rain more forceful and abundant. The jungle teems with life, and the knee-deep mud threatens to hold the inhabitants fast. The majority of the colonists attempt to barricade themselves against the overwhelming fecundity of the land, closing ranks and trying to maintain the forms of the English motherland. Only Baines and Ada meet the challenges posed by their surroundings. There is a passion in their characters which rises up to meet the passion of nature around them.

The pleasures of this movie are too many to recount. The film works on so many levels at the same time that at moments you don't know what has hit you. Photographed by Stuart Dryburgh, "The Piano" is visually stunning, but its beauty is not of the empty picture-postcard kind. The visual texture of the movie is integral to Campion's vision. Michael Nyman, best known for scoring Peter Greenaway's movies, has written a haunting score that captures the essence of each character.

Yet all of these things would be useless if the film did not contain performances to match. Campion's direction is perhaps her greatest achievement in "The Piano." A nearly unrecognizable Holly Hunter is simply amazing as Ada. Despite the fact that she does not utter a word during the movie, Hunter manages to provide a full-bodied portrait of Ada, so that the audience knows what she is thinking and feeling without her having to articulate it. Ada marks Hunter's best work on screen thus far. Keeping up with Hunter is Anna Paquin as Ada's daughter Flora. Paquin brings an intensity and credibility to her role that is astounding in someone her age. She is absolutely terrifying in her innocence. It may be safely said without exaggeration that Paquin has turned in one of the best performances by a child actor ever.

Though his New Zealand accent wobbles a bit at times, Harvey Keitel is, as usual, excellent. He makes a potentially unlikable and thorny man human and sympathetic. Sam Neill, who originally wanted to play the part of Baines, is particularly fine in the role of Stewart, a good man who loses his head because of jealousy and passion. Here Neill has a role that is considerably meatier than the paleontologist he played in "Jurassic Park," and he lives up to the possibilities of the role.

"The Piano" has the quality of a comet bursting forth in a year in which cinematic greatness has been rare. It showcases a sensual and poetic sensibility which has for the most part been absent in the history of film. In order to do this, the movie takes many risks, and brings them off spectacularly. Jane Campion has fashioned a filmic masterpiece, one woman's private symphony. Let yourself be seduced by the wondrous music of this peerless "Piano."