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!!

Pianist David Helfgott (Geoffrey Rush), driven by his father and teachers, has a breakdown. Years later he returns to the piano, to popular if not critical acclaim.I have to say this film did not personally strike me. That is not to say it is a bad film. It is very good film. But just not one that really captured my attention or made me really care about the characters. There is something to be said about talent, genius, mental instability and many other things, and this film says a little bit about each of those. But it did not hit quite hard enough.On the plus side, we have Geoffrey Rush. Today (2015), he is probably better known for his part in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies, but some of us remember when he had some great dramatic roles. This is one, as is his great work in "Quills".

Shine (1996):Dir: Scott Hicks / Cast: Geoffrey Rush, Armin Mueller-Stahl, John Gielgud, Lynn Redgrave, Noah Taylor: Intriguing film about a life conquered by discouragement. The title hardly describes the gloom presented here. It regards a man with a broken soul whose only shred of light comes when he plays the piano. Geoffrey Rush plays him with spirit and anguish. His father survived the Holocaust and rejects his son's opportunity to take his music career to Europe. Predictable and depressing with little or no entertainment value. Directed with insight by Scott Hicks as the true story of David Helfgott and how he functions. Flawless performance by Rush whose music is his only light within the darkness of harsh discouragement. Armin Mueller-Stahl plays his father whose past dictates his interactions with his son. How this eventually plays out is not going to lift anyone's spirits. Supporting roles are somewhat straight forward including John Gielgud whose every scene seems to be to encourage Rush to follow his dreams. Lynn Redgrave looks uncomfortable as his wife who should know better than to get tangled up in this mess. While the message is strong, the delivery is less than inviting. Noah Taylor plays the Rush character in his teens. The result is an overrated and depressing character study that will fail to shine on anyone's day. Score: 4 / 10

shine is one of the most precious movies for me, i loved it from the first sight, its screen making, acting, cast, plot, every thing is just perfect, and above all how the writer and the director handle to express such intrigued element as the sensitive characters as David Helpoffgot. the movies is very rich in the thematic perspective, at first we have David and his father relationship, a point that explain a great deal of each of both character and their psychology. David's father is a authoritative patriarchal sort of character, that can never let anything pass its borders unmarked, that's how he express all his emotion in this display of aggressive power, like his love to his son he says;"non one ever loves you more than me", to his family which he want to fix it in one dimension forever. on the other hands, we see David naturally as a fragile quite child, music is his talent and his sentimental outbreak, but some time i wander whether was his father shades on him that makes piano is the only personal expression for him. i believe that David's sensitivity and fragility is tidily linked with his musical talent; music is a powerful mean of human soul out release, it "express so completely the inexpressible" that the human heart is capable of. In contrast, we got David Helpoffgot who got this talent of musical performance,his overwhelm sensitivity is so delicate to a point that he can not merely contact to the out side world but by the music help. David fallowed his teacher's advice when he told him to "to play like there is no tomorrow", may be he did not realize that he was giving it just to the right person, because there was practically no tomorrow when David had unified with his music, and show us why pure human sentiments can not be reflected in the material world? because it's just the opposite of it. yet David dealt with it, and till now i'm most grateful for the writer to show us simply how this creature could live with such enormous power of sentiment. the uniqueness of shine that unlike all other biographical movies that it does not tells us about rising talent as usual, but about falling one. a thing more common in our unfair world than the successful ones. Finally i'm bound to comment of the last scene of the piano concert, who he manage to defeat his past, his fear and play again. his tears tell us with precious understatement that all that the real talent want on earth is the recognition of the other.