SHINE
Directed by Scott Hicks,
written Jan Sardi, starring Geoffrey Rush, Noah Taylor, Alex Rafalowicz,
Armin Mueller-Stahl, Lynn Redgrave, John Gielgud, Googie Withers, Sonia
Todd, Nicholas Bell.
Trap: Cyril Connolly once said
whom the gods would destroy, they first call "promising" – case
in point, Australian pianist David Helfgott, whose life story this film
tells. Introduced as a cheerful, if rather confused middle-aged man given
to fits of rambling, we gradually learn that he was once a child prodigy,
whose career was cut short by a nervous breakdown. Driven to play by his
tyrannical father (Mueller-Stahl), a holocaust survivor, who then cannot
bear to let him leave home when he wins a scholarship to America, he eventually
breaks away and goes to England to study, only to find the pressure of
performing publicly too much for him.
Bluesy:
As an old English teacher of mine from high school once said "Anybody
who wins an award before the age of 18 isn’t likely to amount to much of
anything." Then again, I always thought he was just a jealous prick
who just didn’t have any talent to start with, but I digress.
I really liked SHINE.
Though I thought it gave a new meaning to the old adage "Death by
Rachmaninoff." I think it’s an interesting irony that Rachmaninoff
becomes a lethal weapon in this film, where we’re constantly warned since
David is a young boy "not to touch the Rachmaninoff, ANYTHING but
the Rachmaninoff," for fear it will seriously damage the lad and take
him over the edge into psychosis. And that is precisely what happens.
The scene where the teenage David (eccentric and skillfully portrayed by
the always talented Noah Taylor, who was so good in FLIRTING
and THE YEAR MY VOICE BROKE;
I only wish they’d let the poor guy act more in roles where he doesn’t
have to wear make-up to cover his grown man stubble) is "done in"
by the dreaded "Rack 3," (which Amy Irving gets to play without
turning her to shock treatment in THE COMPETITION)
is simply amazing. Instead of relying solely on the power of the piece,
Director Hicks choses to show us what David sees and hears while playing…
sound and sight blurring to demonic proportions. It’s as if every ounce
of David’s soul is being used up in this final act of contrition, until
he no longer actually even hears the music… he becomes the music. Like
not hearing oneself talk, when one pours out a very private, gut wrenching
story to someone… or being unaware of the paint on a canvas… it’s choices
like these that set SHINE above
and beyond most films about musicians and their trials to maintain their
sanity in a most vulnerable profession.
Trap:
The avoidance of cliché is what I liked most about the film – at
one point John Gielgud, playing David’s music professor, shows him a copy
of Chopin’s death mask "warts and all", which I thought an apt
metaphor for the film as a whole. After his breakdown, David is not a holy
fool, but a genuinely disturbed individual who is often difficult to be
around. Likewise, his father may be an ogre, but we can see that his overbearing
possessiveness really does come from his fear of losing his family – that
having lost so many relatives already, he can’t bear to lose any more,
even though it is this very possessiveness that is driving them away.
I suspect a lot of this attention to behavioral detail comes from Scott
Hicks’ background in documentary filmmaking. His direction is stylish but
unfussy (well, there’s a recurring water motif that gets a little bit much
after a while, but that’s a minor cavil – it only seems heavy-handed in
comparison with the rest of the film) -- he seems to trust his material
enough not to impose too much on it, and while this occasionally results
in some uneven pacing, he more than makes up for this by giving his superb
cast the opportunity to use their talents to their fullest.
Bluesy:
I agree that this isn’t a flawless film. The structure does get rather
muddy at times, making the film sag slightly in the middle. But, like you
said Trap, the good definitely outweighs the bad for me in this case.
Though I don’t agree on that sympathy vote you’re giving Stahl’s father
character. I think he was a real threatening bully, in the old "Great
Santini" fashion. I do think the horror
father figure was an important element in this film, so we can see just
why David gets pushed over the edge. It’s not necessarily just the pressure
of performing, or of the dreaded Rachmaninoff… but mostly the fact that
the kid has gone against his dominating father’s wishes by leaving the
family finally for school in London, and by doing so, he’s been cut off,
ostracized, considered dead by his family (yet another scene reminscent
of THE JAZZ SINGER).
Trap:
I didn’t mean that the father was a sympathetic character, Bluesy, but
at least his actions are understandable, even if he takes them to a dangerously
twisted extreme. I still liked the way the filmmakers avoided painting
the characters entirely in shades of black and white – something that would
be very easy to do in this case. I can easily imagine this same story being
given a typical movie-of-the-week treatment, full of false uplift and emotional
hokum, and being nowhere near as effective as a result. It is the film’s
honesty and willingness to show its characters for what they are that gives
it its power.
Bluesy: So
we both liked it. Amazing. I didn’t realize you listened to anything other
than the Dead Kennedy’s, Trap.
Trap:
I have hidden depths.
