Waste of time

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Agh really!? I was expecting a lot more from this based on Oscar nominations and all the rave reviews it received. Possibly not my kind of movie or maybe I was just missing something but I didn't enjoy this at all and was bored throughout. I actually stopped and checked out IMDb part way in to make sure I was watching the same movie as everyone else. Yup I was.Told in three parts, Geoffrey Rush does do a fine job as Australian piano prodigist David Helfgott but honestly I was more impressed by Armin Mueller Stahl as his abusive, insecure father and Noah Taylor as the adolescent David, who shows the moment of his mental breakdown after preforming Rachmaninoff's technically demanding Piano Concerto No. 3.Now that was a good scene even if it's left a little unclear as to why and what happened directly afterwards. Glad that's over with. 04.05.14"Geoffrey Rush won an Oscar for his performance in this true story of Australian pianist David Helfgott, who burst on the competition scene at a very early age, but whose star potential was shattered by a nervous breakdown."

Shine is a very famous movie here in South Australia because it was made by one of our own about one of our own. If it wasn't that this movie made a big impact in the States, earning it some academy awards, it would have sunk into obscurity. As it did go well in America, we begin to raise it to a level that it cannot really hold. Shine is a good movie, I agree with that, and yes it does deserve Academy awards, especially for the actor who played the adult David Helfgott, but I feel that us South Australians have made too much out of this movie.Shine is about David Helfgott, a child prodigy with the piano. He was taught by his father and blitzed the competitions when he was young. He was thus offered tuitions and even given the chance to train in America. Unfortunately his father would not let him. Later he is given a scholarship to study at the Royal College of Music in London, and he goes against his father's wishes and travels to London to learn. His desire to please his father leads him to perform one of the hardest pieces ever written and he ends up having a nervous breakdown which leaves him scarred for the rest of his life.The movie is about his life, but it seems that Hicks wanted to place an importance on David's relationship with his father. This should be the central point of the story. He plays the piece that his father wanted him to play and almost killed himself in the process; the movie finishes with his father's death, yet in the later part of the movie his father, and the relationship with him seems to take a back seat. There is only so much that one can do when one is creating a biography though, yet we can see that his father did have an enormous impact on his life.I call David Helfgott's father Mr Insecurity because that is what he seems to be in the movie. His major goal is the preservation of his family yet the harder he tries to stick it together the further he pushes it apart. When he sees the children beginning to fight over a letter from David's host parents to be in America, he decides that he does not want David to go. This is not the beginning as you can see his displeasure from father go further back. He dislikes the upper class company that David will no doubt start keeping and fears that he will reject his father, who is from the poorer side of society. His father knows his status and is scared that he will loose his son, but he manifests his fears when David demands to go to London, and his father lashes out and disowns his child. Thus instead of keeping the family together, he tears it apart even further.Shine, I think, is an average movie. It does deal with real people going through real things, and Scott Hicks definitely has a talent in creating movies, but I do not think that this movie is really worth all of the praise that people gave it. The only reason it is praised because it is a movie filmed in South Australia that made it to Hollywood.

For a long time I had no opportunity to see this Australian film of different reasons but I have done it and I'm very happy because "Shine" is accurate the same as I its imagined. That's very inspiring drama with brilliant performances Geoffrey Rush, Armin Mueller-Stahl and remarkable Noah Taylor that liked me more of all and earned "Oscar" like and genius Geoffrey Rush, in my opinion. I disappointed that he didn't been even if nominated for his role. I'm musician and I have clearly understanding the sense of that movie. Music is the great energy that capable of to raise you and also break you and your life. And else that is film about human egoism that destructive for lives others and ourselves. This film definitely made me cleverer.

Amazing movie. Go watch it if you haven't yet. Ugandian born (now Australian) Scott Hicks made this near masterpiece movie and actually left me willing to explore more of his works. Shine is about David Helfgott (Alex Rafalowicz, Noah Taylor and Geoffrey Rush). David sees since very young his life driven towards the fields of the piano. His father, visibly victimised by his austere father (Alex Rafalowicz), demands perfection from him and also extreme loyalty to him. His father sacrifices a lot of his potential in order to fulfil his desires and wills, including not allowing David to go study in the States. A few years later he receives a scholarship from the Royal College of Music in London, an opportunity which is father obviously declined. But David was already older enough and left home, what shocked his father, who decided to clear David from his family, believing his acts were a complete betrayal. Anyway, in London, David practises like an animal and reaches the complete success, winning a competition, when ha has a mental breakdown on stage. Years pass and he is forgotten, until his talent is rediscovered, by accident. Very powerful movie. Got me by surprise because I didn't knew, even during the movie that his mental illness, allied with his great talent, who be pu together so brilliantly. Geoffrey Rush received one of the most deserved Oscars the Academy has ever given. He had in my opinion what might just be his best performance of his whole career. Although works well to dramatize David's youth, it seems to me that his father is too much exaggerated, as his family say he was nothing like shown in the family. The same happens with David's quality in the piano after the breakdown, that is supposed to be a somehow worse that the movie implies. That clearly separates this movie from total perfection. Nevertheless, a real delight to both music lovers and fanciers of the devilries of the mental illness. 9/10