AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Listonixio Fresh and Exciting

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Mandeep Tyson The acting in this movie is really good.

Naveen Sankaran A real life inspired movie on an Australian pianist who struggles with his own mental illness to come-up! This is the first ever Australian movie that I witnessed and its not the story/screenplay/music or the dialogs but the acting of the lead character - Geoffrey Rush! I have no words to praise his performance; just overwhelming! I never expected that I would be moved by his acting at the start. But it did at the end. So much that I had to watch his performance in The King's Speech!If a single performance can make you watch the whole movie, this is it then!! No wonder he got "Triple Crown of Acting" (an Academy Award, a Tony Award and an Emmy Award).You'll be taken aback by his performance for sure! Additional Information: He was also notable for being the first actor to win the Oscar, the BAFTA, the Golden Globe, the SAG Award, and the Critics' Choice Award for a single performance.Just Go and Experience his acting!!

craig-hopton This is a mostly uplifting biopic of David Helfgott, an Australian pianist afflicted by mental disease. Uplifting because although his illness ultimately stops him realising his full potential, he does survive it and emerges from his darkest moments to get back into the concert hall again. In other words, this is a celebration of survival.The strongest aspect of the movie is the relationship between Helfgott and his father, a Polish Jewish immigrant to Australia. The father is presented as a harsh taskmaster, extremely proud but also wanting what (he believes) is the best for his family. His domineering approach drives the two of them apart and (you suspect) contributes to Helfgott's illness. But the interactions between Armin Mueller-Stahl as the father and Alex Rafalowicz, Noah Taylor and Geoffrey Rush as Helfgott at different ages provide the strongest moments of drama.There are a number of Helfgott's other relationships explored - his friendship with an elderly woman and music-lover, his apprenticeship with a professor in London, and his falling in love with a woman who becomes his wife. But none of these sustains the same level of drama and interest as the father-son scenes.Of course a mention also has to be given to the music. There's plenty of beautiful piano playing (I'd have liked more), culminating in a frantic performance of Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto in the movie's signature and pivotal scene. I'd watch Shine again just to see this clip.

david-sarkies 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.

tomislav-cikic This is one of top 5 films I ever see. Story is very strong and performances are for 20. First time I watch this movie I just keep sitting after for 10 minutes and wonder... THIS IS ABSOLUTE MUST SEE MOVIE. Geoffrey Rush is brilliant and this part is how you say made for him. There is a thin line between genius and laugh but Geoffrey is made it. The best scene is David playing Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #3 - Helfgott's own recording of the piece is used - and the aftermath. I do not prefer this kind of music - but after the movie I got myself humming Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto #3.Geoffrey Rush got an Oscar for this performance