Shine. - movie reviews

National Catholic Reporter, March 21, 1997 by Joseph Cunneen

"Shine" (Fine Line Features) was so popular it was sold out when I rushed to see it shortly after opening day. But I went back so I could file a report before Academy Awards night. The movie has the extra appeal of being a real life story of a musical genius -- the Australian pianist David Helfgott -- who recovers after a complete breakdown and years in mental institutions. It's easy to get emotionally involved: Director Scott Hicks skillfully keeps the action moving back and forth in time, and we are rewarded with a happy ending. Besides, the music on the soundtrack is played by Helfgott himself. I remained somewhat resistant, however, perhaps because I'm getting tired of movie artists who are driven mad by the demands of their art.

What is most reassuring about "Shine" is the sustaining generosity the not-yet-recovered artist receives from ordinary people, even before his marriage proposal is accepted by a compassionate astrologer (Vanessa Redgrave). And although Geoffrey Rush has gotten the larger measure of critical praise as the unnerving, gibberish-spouting, post-breakdown David, a more powerful -- if less showy -- performance is turned in by Helfgott's demanding father, Peter (Armin Mueller-Stahl). Peter Helfgott, a Polish-Jewish immigrant, has the devastated look of a concentration camp survivor; when he tells his son, "You're a very lucky boy," and David repeats it, we feel they are enduring a trial they cannot determine or even fully understand. The father loves his son, but he has impossible standards for David's success as a pianist; even worse, he can't relinquish control. He successfully blocks acceptance of a music scholarship in the United States, and when David determines to go away to the London School of Music, tells his son, "You will suffer for this for the rest of your life."

Hicks makes Helfgott's piano-playing visually exciting and almost unbearably intense. In London David has a wise old teacher, Cecil Parkes, played with great humor by John Gielgud. Although disowned by his father, Helfgott determines to master his father's favorite, Rachmaninoff's "Piano Concerto No. 3." He succeeds, to thunderous applause, but the effort has been too much: His collapse on stage is really the climax of the movie.

The screenplay by Jan Sardi, however, rearranges the narrative chronology: At the very beginning we have seen the mature David, chain-smoking, out-of-control, yet almost childishly good-humored, gain entrance to an Australian wine bar and entertain patrons by playing the piano with gusto and a suggestion of contentment. After David's collapse, the movie passes quickly through years of hospitals and shock treatments, but neither explains nor dramatizes the process of recovery. Suddenly the camera returns to the win bar, whose patrons show surprising enthusiasm for classical music, and the artist meets his future wife. We get the sense that David has achieved a certain equilibrium, even in his approach to his art. "It's a mystery," he mutters; that's all we get. Although we're delighted to realize that the real Helfgott is now happily married and an international concert favorite after the deadly struggle with his father and the collapse on the London stage, it's something of a letdown.