Review: The Piano Teacher

Nutshell:  MESSED UP. 

And sad.  And not in a curl-up-on-the-couch-with-a-box-of-tissues-while-Shirley-MacLaine-yells-about-her-daughter’s-pain-meds kind of way.  I didn’t like it, I’d never watch it again, and I wouldn't recommend it unless you want to feel bleak.

Based on the Netflix description I thought it might be like a French version of the Mary Kay Letourneau – Vili Fualaau saga, though perhaps without the eventual marriage and unfortunate DJ career (“Hot For Teacher Night”?  Really, dude?).  Or that it would at least be a reversal on the overdone May-December/lecherous old man-young ingénue thing.  And it certainly started out that way.

Erika is a pianist and instructor, single, stylishly approaching middle age, seemingly self-possessed but living under the thumb of her domineering mother.  OK no, domineering doesn’t even describe.  Erika is forced to account for her whereabouts at all times, every penny she spends, who she talks to; and their arguments tend to devolve into strangely adolescent slap-fights.

So when we’re first introduced to some of her BIZARRE behavior (sniffing discarded tissues at a porn shop, lashing out in fits of jealousy towards her talented students), it seemed more pitiable than creepy to me.  At first.  Her only close relationship is with a woman who would give fictionalized Joan Crawford a run for her money, and she’s clearly lonely and bitter.

When her 17 year-old student Walter begins to pursue her, you’re almost rooting for the relationship.  Give in!  Get some distance from that harpy you live with!  Let your hair down!  Unclench!

But then the affair begins, and it immediately becomes clear that something isn’t right.  Again, at first I thought that maybe she’d just been alone for so long that she needs to relearn sexual social norms.  And Walter seems ultimately unfazed by their disturbing first encounter, so maybe it’ll all work out . . .

That is until Erika communicates (in a schoolgirl note-passing way) that the only way their relationship can continue is if he agrees to some pretty serious S&M.  Tee-hee.  The rest of the movie is a series of negotiations between the two of them, and as his interest in her wanes she becomes increasingly desperate to make it work.  Out of desperation she attempts to have a “normal” romantic relationship and is completely unable to.

So Walter gives in to her demands.  And it all goes horribly wrong.  That’s not a judgment on her sexual predilections.  Whatever two consenting adults do behind closed doors is their business.  Good for you.  It’s nice to have a hobby.  But Erika is clearly unprepared to act out what she specifically asked for (Which made total sense to me.  I don’t pretend to understand the intricacies of sado-masochistic relationships, but can one really be domineering and submissive at the same time?).

Consequently, she has a total meltdown and her behavior from then on out is just batshit insane.  The ending is violent and sad and anti-climactic.  At the start of the movie it seemed that Walter might have been able to rescue her from her mother, her severe jealousy issues, her loneliness; but at the end we’re left knowing that she’s headed for either a complete psychotic break or is at the very least doomed to continue her desperate existence with no chance for salvation.  Ugh.