| Sunshine |
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| 1/2 |
| Rating: Mixed Distributor: Paramount Classics MPAA Rating: R U.S. Release Date: June 9th, 2000 (limited) Genre: Drama, Epic Running Time: 3 hours Director: Istvan Szabo Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Jennifer Ehle, Deborah Unger, William Hurt, Rachel Weisz, Miriam Margolyes, John Neville, Molly Parker, and James Frain. |
| Plot: Three generations of a hungarian family are traced through love affairs, wars, prejudice and family feuds. Ralph Fiennes plays the central male in each of the three families. The first is a judge who marries his cousin, the second is an Olympic gold medalist fencer, and the third is a member of the communist party. The first main character's wife is played by Jennifer Ehle, and when she gets older she is played by Rosemary Harris. Szabo focuses his meaning on this woman who is the most consistently seen throughout his three chapters. |
| Critique: Sunshine is an ambitious, artsy epic that has no emotional involvement, and bland characters. The cinematography, and art direction start off strong, but fade as the story progresses. Director Istvan Szabo is not able to hold a consistent theme, and changes tones near the end to try to make a point. Still, the film has its strengths. Its score by Maurice Jarre is staggering, the acting is usually very strong, and often the film is compelling in a soap opera level way. In fact you could call Sunshine a sophisticated, moderately well done soap opera. But, in the end it's still a soap opera. It leaves you feeling empty, unsatisfied, and even a bit manipulated. Szabo also misses the mark in his attempts to discuss prejudice, and is oddly inappropriate in handling incest and family values. The film has no punch, and it felt like it needed a good shove here and there. The casting of Ralph Fiennes as a different main character in the three separate segments was a big mistake. I would assume the decision was made for financial reasons, as you can't hire three big actors in a relative indie. Also, if they used Fiennes in only one segment the film would not make as much money, and would not be able to utilize Fiennes star power. Another reason could be because Szabo wanted him for storytelling purposes, so that he could maintain the essence of the family. Most likely the decision was a combination the latter two theories. Still it is a bit odd to see his face as again and again and assume he isn't the same person. No matter what Fiennes does he can't run from the fact that as an audience that's a lot for us to swallow. Plus, since each main character is romantically involved we get to see to much of Fiennes's butt. Don't get me wrong, the sex scenes are mild, and as much as I deeply respect Ralph Fiennes as an actor I don't need to see his butt that many times. Szabo's attempts at epic glory never work out for several reasons. Mainly the characters and storyline just aren't very interesting. I'm not really a demanding audience, I like long epics a lot and can usually maintain some sort of interest. Sunshine had its moments, but in the end its a not worth 3 hours of your time. review by supernothingman |