SHINE (1996) *** How nutty am I if I think that there are universal themes in a film about a child prodigy classical pianist with a Jewish father with fascist characteristics who tries to keep his kid away from cute girls, who (the kid) ends up spending all of his college allowance on good times and fast women and who suffers a mental breakdown as the result of the intense pressures of playing Rachmaninoff's Third Concerto to the point where he speaks incessently and is institutionalized only to find salvation at the keyboard in his personal flophouse, and a path of redemption leading from the local cafe' to stages where he is wildly acclaimed, if still nuts? Director Scott Hicks faithfully trots out unusual shots and angles on a regular enough basis to make sure that we know it's an art film, but he also puts together a film that is better than the sum of its many good parts.
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