Shine

Rating:
Summary: Some Good Drama Some Overdone
Review: Shine is a movie that definitely took a great deal of thought and planning. The premise is the realtionship of a classical piano playing son prodigy with his passionate yet abusive father. When the father refuses to allow his son to pursue his talents in London, our hero runs away to rebel against his father.

Later on he suffers a nervous breakdown and stammers terribly throughout the course of his adult life. He finds a love interest and is able to find eventual success in his musical pursuits.

There is some excellent cinematography particularly of the sheer expression of our hero's piano playing ability. Somehow the repetitive scenes of our hero standing in the rain or throwing his eye glasses off gets a bit wearisome. Nonetheless, our hero perserveres in the end so the sense of triumph does extend this rating to about 3 1/2 stars.

Rating:
Summary: Bravo!
Review: Shine is about dreams, love, failure and success. Young David Helfgott wants to go abroad to study piano and take advantage of a grant he's offered against his father's wishes. The emotional stress ends up crippling his dreams of becoming a famous pianist and spending a good part of his life in a mental institution. This movie is filled with magical scenes with subtle messages like the one where the David's father goes to see him after many years and talks very casually and almost apologetic about trivial things and then leaves as we see him walk down the wet dark streets below from David's point of view. The father's message: "I'm sorry son" and all the images-the wet streets(=tears), the fact that is nighttime (shades of blue- blue means trust, frienship) is all to symbolize the sadness and the love that David's father feels inside but is unable to express verbally to his son. It's a powerfull scene and althought there are no tears on screen the viewer of this movie will provide his own. Shine is great film that takes a different path and stays away from the Holywood formula. Geoffry Rush plays Helfgott as an adult and you should see Rush's work in "Quills" playing opposite Joaquim Phoenix who's one the besy up and coming actors today, and who plays Comodus in the Academy award winning movie "Gladiator".

Rating:
Summary: good movie but inaccurate
Review: Shine is an good movie in some sense with obviously some touching moments. But the biggest problem is the potrayal of the pianist is not true. So even though the movie based on real life character but for most part especially the pianist talent is overrated or exagerated in the movie. I've seen the way he's playing in real life concert and it's so dissapointing. It's like watching a freak show. You expected a great pianist. But you saw an average talented pianist who happened to have some pshycological problem because of his childhood experiences. That makes me dissapointed with the movie.

Rating:
Summary: Impressively understated biopic
Review: Shine tells the true story of child genius pianist David Helfgott who suffers physical and mental abuse through his overbearing father (Armin Mueller Stahl) until he finally manages to escape to university in London. However, his childhood still bearing over him along with the pressures of having to do well force his eccentricities to breaking point until he suffers a mental breakdown after performing Rachmaninoff's Concerto No. 3 in D Minor. Spending his early adult years in an institution it isn't until he meets Lynn Redgrave, an astrologist, and starts up playing the piano at a local bar that David realises his true potential.

For years now the true life saga has been marred by criticism for being inaccurate or overly sensationalist. Witness the good but ultimately incredibly flawed (despite superb performances) Beautiful Mind from a couple of years ago. Play around with the material and you will only garner mixed reviews. Even movies about madness seem to have a certain stigma attached to them simply due to the fact that many seem tailored towards the star. Neither of these is the case with Shine, an understated and therefore touching and genuine movie from Australia. Whilst the main theme of overcoming all obstacles to realise the person that you can be may sound clichéd, it is here done incredibly well by all concerned. It's slow-burning, which might put a few people off, but the emotional pay-off is intense and even though this won't make you cry (something that appears to be almost requisite for a genre that often suffocates in sentimentality) it's certainly intelligent and makes you think.

A lot of what makes Shine such an impressive view of madness os down to some superb performances from Noah Taylor (Flirting) and Geoffrey Rush (Lantana) as the teenage and adult David respectively. The character progression is among the best I've seen in the last few years on film, ensuring constantly that madness is never reduced to a mere stereotype. Rush's performance was deservedly Oscar-winning, although Taylor is every bit as good as you watch David's eccentricities gradually become more and more detatched from reality. The fact that the filmmakers can then mould this into a sympathetic character that is starting to overcome his own insanity is very good indeed. Also worthy of mention is Lynn Redgrave as David's future wife, who puts in an understated performance to go with a decidedly understated movie that is all the better for it. If you liked this I'd highly recommend Hilary and Jackie, which tells the story of British cellist Jacqueline du Pré in a similarly sympathetic but realist fashion.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most powerfull movies I have seen
Review: Shine was one of the most powerful movies I have seen. David suffered server mental abuse from his father. Rush played a splended part as David. I look forward to seeing David Helthcott preform in Townsville, Australia, on the 22nd of November 1999.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Movie
Review: The DVD version is one disc only. The only special features it has is questions for the director Scott Hicks and Rushes acceptance speech. You will need to turn over the movie to view the features. Besides that, this is an excellent movie about the real life story of Helgott- a musician who struggles with his art and with himself. Many would say this movie is about madness but to be honest with this movie is about acceptance and how not everyone loses their abilities after a set-back. I would recommend this movie for all musicians.

Rating:
Summary: Draining
Review: This is an emotionally draining movie. It really gets to you. It is amazing how anyone could lead such a life. This was a terrific cast. Geoffrey Rush was really good. Armin Mueller Stahl and Lynn Redgrave were terrific in supporting roles. And Noah Taylor should have won an Oscar. Unbelievable performances.

Rating:
Summary: An odd story
Review: This is based on the life of David Helfgott, an Australian piano prodigy who escaped the stifling influence of his strange, domineering father to attend the Royal College of Music in London. Apparently he was always eccentric, but his career was cut short by a mysterious seizure that turned him into a chain-smoking, shuffling, manic-mumbling, confused person who spent years institutionalized. Eventually he wandered into a piano bar and was re-discovered.


Rating:
Summary: Redemption and Music
Review: This is one of the most beautiful films I have ever seen. I bought this DVD as a gift, as I have seen this film five times already in three different languages. I was astounded at how the film was at once simple yet moving and realistic withouyt resorting to any sappiness. as someone who has struggled to become a good pianist (though hardly a virtuoso), I understood the emotion and desire that can overcome you as you decide to tackle a difficult piece. Learning it is akin to a great triumph. I think the film is strongest during the sequence that depicts Helfgott's study at the Royal Conservatory as he learns the Rachmaninov concerto no. 3. The shots of the hands climbing the keyboard, the emphasis on the choirds of the main cadenza and the obvious satisfaction shown by the actor were very moving. I was on the edge of my seat. I think, howver, the scene that truly shows what music can mean is one of the final ones as helfgott is jumping on a net listening to a headset playing a Vivaldi cantata. He's completely lost in the music and an unbound happiness. As I told the girl that accompanied me to my first viewing of the film, that's what music means to me.

Rating:
Summary: Simply marvelous, wonderful, phenomenal, remarkable!!!!!
Review: This is truly one of the best movies in the world!! If anybody wants to cry, but feel good about it then this is the perfect movie. This is another movie that displays how GREAT Australian actors are. I truly liked this movie because it is well written and it really gives the audience the satisfaction they want to get or deserve. Aside from being well written, the movie also displayed how important a family could be, and how the main characters father treasured the family he had. I did not really dislike anything in the film except how the main character was used in a number of ways. I hope many will like thgis film as I did.