Shine (1996)

Nominee

When I think of great movies I often get blinded by the idea of an epic: long sweeping shots, loud emotional soundtracks, and the biggest actors giving stunning performances. However, as I completed watching Shine last night I was reminded that often a great movie can merely be a simple love poem to its own content.

Shine is based on the life of David Helfgott, a profound pianist who developed a mental disorder, who then proceeds with the help of those around him to rise to prominence again. Helfgott is played by Geoffrey Rush, who at this point has established himself as one of my favorite character actors. Rush is able, as he is in most of his work, to completely lose himself in the character. Some actors like to always put a certain edge of their own personality into their work, which is also good, but Rush, especially here seems to fling himself into a reckless committed abandon. Adding small things and nuances to make us love this man.

We also see a real respect for piano playing throughout the entire movie. Sometimes I worry in movies about musicians and sports players that the film will not grasp a real depiction of the work at hand. Here the shooting seems like an ode to the art of music, offering us very specifically chosen angles and often smooth and poignant lighting. We see what passion goes into the piano playing by the passion you can see for filming. Especially when he plays the Rach 3, he leaves everything on that piano and we feel it through the lens of a someone with passion for their own work.

I was a little torn by the script at times. At the beginning in particular they over play the commanding father figure. Some of the scenes are very sharply put back in Helfgott's seemingly insane mutterings later, but I think at times it was over done. Also I did have some issues with musical choices, if you are going to play mostly gorgeous classical pieces you should not also include that awful over synthesized soundtrack music that they used in the late 80's and  90's, it fails atrociously by comparison, even if they didn't realized that at the time, my forgiveness is lacking.

Overall: This is a pleasant, sometimes hard and sometimes humorous movie. A cleanly filmed story that reaches its viewers. I can see why it did not win in comparison to Fargo, or yes even the winner that year The English Patient, but it is certainly worth the watch if you are a music lover, or like a good comeback story. Happy Watching