It is the middle of February and the Oscar race is heating up. Theaters are showing Oscar-nominated films which were originally released in December or before. "Shine," originally released over two and a half months ago, is showing up in more and more theaters in light of its strong Oscar showing.
"Shine" picked up seven total nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Score, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing. It also earned Australian newcomer Geoffrey Rush a Best Actor nomination. Rush has already won the Golden Globe for Best Actor, and was named Best Actor by both the New York and Los Angeles Critics Circles.
"Shine" deserves such praise. It is a lovely film about the pitfalls and glory of genius. Based on the true story of Australian pianist David Helfgott, it is more than a typical "inspirational film." It is an intimate examination of one man's horrific childhood and subsequent redemption through art.
Our first glimpse of Helfgott is at a closed restaurant. He bangs on the door until the few remaining employees finally answer. The nature of his speech -- a stacatto outpouring of free associations brilliantly recreated by Rush -- shows he is a broken man. One charitable employee escorts him to a small room in a halfway house where multiple ashtrays filled to the brim with cigarette butts, lie scattered about, and a well-worn piano sits with reams of sheet music piled atop.
It is an excellent introduction, and in the first of many brilliant segues, director Scott Hicks then takes us to a piano recital where a small boy plays a brilliant rendition of Chopin's "Polonaise." Soon, Peter Helfgott (Armin Mueller-Stahl) stoically walks in front of his son. Immediately, his family knows that David has lost the competition.
David's father rules his family with an iron fist. He expects unswerving love and devotion but only gives love when David wins. He is obsessed with music and a story from his youth. When he was an adolescent, he saved and saved for a violin. When he bought it, his father smashed it to pieces becausehe felt music was an unaffordable luxury. Peter later teaches himself and all of his children to play the piano, and David is his star pupil.
When David (played as an adolescent by Noah Taylor) wins a state championship and a scholarship to a school in the United States, Peter forbids his son from "destroying the family," and keeps him at home. David begins to withdraw into his own world, inspiring brutal beatings from his father.
David eventually secretly applies to the Royal College of Music in London, and when his father finds out, he tells him that if he walks out the door, he will never be a part of the family again. David goes to London and starts a life of his own, his letters to home returned to sender.
Under the careful tutelage of his professor (Sir John Gielgud), David attempts to conquer the "Rach 3," the supposed "Everest" of the piano repertoire. When he performs the full concerto for an audience, he suffers a nervous breakdown that leaves him the broken man we see in the film's opening.
As an adult, David finds redemption in the piano. When he returns to the restaurant in the first scene and sits down to the piano, he is taunted by the owner. He silences all when he begins playing the flurry and fury that is "Flight of the Bumblebee." Suddenly employable once again, the healing power of music is strong enough to bring love into his life. He meets and eventually marries an astrologer (Vanessa Redgrave).
Peter, who so easily could have become a monster, is instead a figure as tragic as his son. David himself, through Rush's whirlwind performance, is a damaged man, but a man nonetheless. Rush's performance avoids affectations, and is instead nothing short of affecting.
The film is slightly flawed, however. The relationship between David and Gillian is given short shrift to the point that it seems entirely possible that she has married him out of pity more than anything else.
Despite any small flaws, "Shine" is a great film. Perhaps it is not the most insightful or creative film released last year, but it is certainly one of the most enjoyable and uplifting. By avoiding many common pitfalls of your typical "inspirational" film, "Shine" transcends the genre and instead teaches us a little bit about the anodyne that is art.
