1. A tremendous biopic about overcoming the odds. It's what 'A Beautiful Mind' wants to grow up to be.
2. God save us from yet another holy fool movie. Geoffrey Rush has been much better.
3. I declare "Shine" to be the best film of the year!
4. Inspiring, memorable cinema.
5. Compassionate, deft, unsentimental, inspirational.
6. The movie is really an Oscar sandwich -- stale bread surrounding a big piece of ham: Geoffrey Rush.
7. With the exception of a few overwrought scenes, Hicks' Australian biopic of pianist David Helfgott, which caused a bidding war at the 1996 Sundance Fest, is fresh and emotionally stirring without being sentimental or cliched.
8. [Helfgott's] extraordinary life is intelligently charted here, and the three actors who play him at different stages are all exceptional.
9. Intense, gripping mental-illness music drama.
10. Shine beams with warmth, sensitivity, and fine taste, but some of that illumination is the work of our own reflector lamps.
What is the consensus?
Featuring a strong performance from Geoffrey Rush, Shine succeeds in telling a compelling, inspirational story without resorting to cheap sentimentality.