Ersatz sentiment and grandstanding performances are the main keys of John Schlesinger’s piano-as-metaphor melodrama. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala’s script, adapted from Bernice Rubens’ novel, assembles several outsider stereotypes in a crumbling house: a furtive gay man (Geoffrey Bayldon), a model (Twiggy) and a madame (Shirley MacLaine) who spouts Mr Miyagi-style life lessons to her young piano pupil, Manek (Navin Chowdhry). Subtexts seep in, but any emotion gets muffled by the pat set-up and MacLaine’s puffed-up performance.
