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Shine (1996)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
January 8th, 2008
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'Shine' is the potent, moving story of David Helfgott, a piano prodigy who suffered a breakdown after years of arduous dedication to mastering the virtually unplayable Concerto No. 3 from Russian composer Rachmaninoff, a task that was given to him by his domineering and abusive father Peter (Armin Mueller-Stahl), whose advice to David is simply "always win", in competitions and anything else. Peter's family perished in the Holocaust, and that understandably scarred him, turning him away from religion, and making him insufferably stubborn when it comes to allowing his children to make decisions for themselves. David is a musical genius, but when we first meet him, he is a patient at an asylum, played by Geoffrey Rush as a man who babbles incoherently, rattling off a string of words with amazing speed, and laughing to himself, but very forward and likable, and when he shows up in a restaurant, drenched by rain, he looks like he might cause trouble, but when he sits down and places his fingers on the piano keys, music pours out of him with furious beauty; he plays, in fact, with such focus and intensity that he once collapsed from exhaustion after a concert.
As a boy (Alex Rafalowicz), he was pushed hard by his father to succeed at both piano and chess, and he practiced diligently to impress Peter, who deeply loves his son, but who will not stand for his authority to be defied. Peter is hesitant to have David trained by music teachers, and even more hesitant to let him attend college, whether in America or London. Noah Taylor is the teenaged David, who gets a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, and plans on going whether Peter approves of it or not. It causes a schism between them that lasts for decades. David becomes an even more accomplished pianist, under the tutelage of Cecil Parkes (John Gielgud), a professor of music, who boasts to David about playing the so-called Rach 3 for Rachmaninoff himself, and believes in David's abilities even when his colleagues don't.
Peter rules his family with an iron fist; David and his two sisters are resentful, and their mother is submissive. David befriends an old woman named Katharine Prichard (Googie Withers), who apparently is the leader of a Communist organization, but she nonetheless admires David's music and encourages him to follow his dreams and do what he wants, regardless of what his father says. As an adult, David finds salvation through Gillian (a wonderful Lynn Redgrave), an astrologer by trade who meets David through one of her friends, and she marries him, calming the storms within, and helping him re-ignite his professional career.
Rush and Taylor offer two distinct interpretations of the same character, and their performances are extraordinary; Rush won a well-deserved Oscar, but the film could not have worked without the contribution of Taylor, who occupies the screen for the lengthy middle portion, which deals with David's adolescence. If anything, the film showcases some truly amazing musical numbers, as David performs at various stages of his life. This adds to the film's overall richness, and mood, the music encapsulates the temperament of David himself, represents his inner anguish, it is liberating and intoxicating, for him, and for us.
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