ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 14, 1997 TAG: 9702140024
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
TYPE: MOVIE REVIEW
It would be enough if "Shine" were just an extraordinary movie about an extraordinary talent and the difficulties of giftedness.
But it is also a horror film, of sorts, about a father who casts his darkness upon his son and how that child crawls back into the light, then stands.
It is a process of self-restoration that director Scott Hicks captures so beautifully and with such generosity of spirit that even when the story becomes horrific, it is impossible not to feel compassion for its subjects - all of them.
By now, almost everyone has heard a little something about the true story of David Helfgott, a child prodigy whose piano virtuosity made him something of a celebrity in Australia at a very early age.
Jan Sardi's screenplay picks up the story at one of David's first piano competitions at something like age 8. The piano keeps inching away on its casters while young David's father, Peter (Armin Mueller-Stahl of "The Music Box"), shouts in outrage that his son should not be forced to compete under such conditions.
There is no question about what kind of father this is: A Holocaust survivor, he wields his sense of "family" like a blunt instrument in order to create a safe place - mostly for himself. He is, quite simply, a victim of post-traumatic stress disorder.
But he does relinquish a modicum of control to Ben Rosen (Nicholas Bell) who sees David perform and realizes that he is a rare talent. Peter is finally persuaded to let Rosen teach David. What Peter really wants out of the deal is for David to take on the monumental "Rach 3," (Rachmaninoff's third piano concerto) but Rosen is wise enough to know that David isn't ready for such an undertaking.
As David becomes older and more accomplished, Peter's need to control his son expresses itself in increasingly sadistic ways. Hicks, with the ample help of cinematographer Geoffrey Simpson, shows David fighting not to lose himself to his father - through sheer mental fortitude and the friendship of an older woman, a writer named Katharine (Googie Withers), who gives David the unconditional support he cannot get at home. The adolescent David here is played by Noah Taylor.
Ultimately, though, Peter's darkness engulfs his son - even from thousands of miles away in London, where David is studying at the Royal Conservatory of Music. If you're into symbols, pay attention to what Hicks and Sardi do with water in this movie, even when it's tumbling down onto the piano keys from David's face during his life-changing performance of the "Rach 3."
There are so many good things about this movie, it's hard to know where to begin to give credit. Taylor and Mueller-Stahl are superb as a son and father locked in a death struggle; John Gielgud is delightful as the once-flamboyant piano instructor in London, Cecil Parkes; and Lynn Redgrave musters something new as Gillian, the woman whose leap of faith helps "adult" (well, sort of) David plunge into life again.
Geoffrey Rush, who has been nominated for an Academy Award for best actor for his performance as David as an adult, gives one of those performances that makes you forget that you're watching an actor. The fact that he does the piano playing himself in the scenes that require it only makes the performance more authentic.
"Shine" is such a deeply inspiring movie, it beggars description. Perhaps the best analogy is to that of great music: It has the capacity to move us beyond words.
"Shine" ****
A Fine Line Features release playing at Grandin Theatre. 105 minutes. PG-13 for innocent nudity and disturbing subject matter.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: John Gielgud is piano instructor Cecil Parkes and Noahby CNBTaylor is the young David Helfgott in "Shine." color.