Plot Details: This opinion reveals minor details about the movie's plot.

I would love to be able to play a piano. Sometimes I say I can play a few songs on a piano, but I can’t. I play the keyboard and that’s not the same thing. You press the keys on a keyboard while you hit the keys on a piano. There are also too many nuances to playing a piece on the piano for keyboardists to comprehend. The piano, with its alluring mix of grandiosity and elegance, is the sexiest of all musical instruments; in capable hands, the piano can produce concord with the indescribable depths of the human spirit and a film, in capable hands, can also touch you just as profoundly. Scott Hicks’ Shine is a poignant film about an idiot savant who can hit all the right keys with both a piano and the viewer’s soul.

The comparison that immediately comes to mind when I think of Shine is A Beautiful Mind. Both films feature Oscar-winning performances by Australian actors whom portray real-life insane, yet brilliant people, but Shine and its lead performer are by far superior to A Beautiful Mind and Russell Crowe. Admittedly, there is only one group of films that can boast completely honest portrayals of real people and events and they are called “documentaries”. But, by the end of the movie, you do not care about the misinformation Shine gives about the real-life David Helfgott because the film does not have the ridiculously polished ending of A Beautiful Mind

Yet the very brief catharsis and demonstration of Rush’s ability to turn on the tears is one of the most powerful movie endings ever. The only flaw of Shine is the way that it progresses to the end. The film is not chronological and begins close to the ending. This unnecessarily muddles the plot and is a film technique employed in far too many films. Director Scott Hicks should have let the movie play out just like a master pianist would play a concerto, from beginning to end.

In the beginning, David Helfgott (Alex Rafalowicz portrays his childhood) was the only son of a poor Jewish family that escaped the Holocaust by moving to Australia. It is hinted at that David’s father, Peter, (Armin Mueller-Stahl) has had a turbulent relationship with David’s grandfather (not in the movie), who would not let Peter indulge in his passion for music. Thus, Peter hones David’s piano skills to perfection and is, literally, insane with his love for Peter and the rest of the family. But love gone too far, as we all know, is obsession, and that can be destructive, especially for a growing boy (Noah Taylor portrays an adolescent David).

Shine is the extreme example of what every man must do before becoming a man (and it has nothing to do with having sex with a woman): decide that what you do is not for pleasing or displeasing your parent(s), but that what you do is to please or displease yourself. Usually, and hopefully, this separation from dominating parental figures is not the cataclysmic event seen in Shine, where Peter tells his son that if he leaves the house to study music abroad, he can never step foot in the house again.

In London, under the aegis of teacher and mentor Ben Rosen (Nicholas Bell), David attempts to climb the Mount Everest for pianists and that is the Rachmaninov Piano Concerto no. 3, “The hardest piece you can everest play,” as David puts it in the movie. David will eventually give a flawless performance of the Rach 3 to an appreciative crowd in an awesome display of the combination of music and cinema. However, right after the performance, David abruptly has a nervous breakdown.

The new mumbling, uninhibited David (Geoffrey Rush), presented first during the beginning of Shine, becomes the embodiment of courage and perseverance. Even though David finds himself in an institute, his insanity is definitely welcoming to those around him as he has become the opposite of what he was before his breakdown, a manically outgoing, childish, almost comical being. Geoffrey Rush’s portrayal of the adult David, unlike so many other portrayals of insane characters, does a lot more than simply stir up emotions for that character – it actually inspires you by letting you know that nothing can stop you from expressing yourself in the ways you know how. And David knows the piano so very well.

Aside from the brilliant performances and the hopeful story, there are many moments when Shine concentrates on delightful piano performance. These performances would be fairly enjoyable if they were simply put on a CD and shipped, but shown visually and in such a rich, meaningful context, they are sublime experiences that will certainly make you want to start learning the piano if you haven’t already. Indeed, I went to my keyboard and pressed away, trying to capture the emotion of the Moonlight Sonata as perfectly as David captured the emotion of Rachmaninov 3. Unfortunately, I do not have the funds to purchase a grand piano (let alone a big enough place to put one) but I’m convinced that is something I will eventually invest in.

Shine is an essential, monumental source of inspiration for anyone learning the piano or keyboard. For everyone else, it’s simply a must-see movie.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older