SUNSHINE
Here Comes The Sun, It's (Not) Alright
The Popcorn Reel Movie Review: "Sunshine"
By Omar P.L. Moore/July 19, 2007
A burnin-up-a! Cliff Curtis forgoes sunblock but dons
eyewear for the big bright shining hot star. (Photo: Fox Searchlight
Pictures)
"Sunshine" is a classic example of rolling a boulder up a
hill: if you have the strength to get it to the top of the hill, you had better
make sure that the boulder doesn't roll backwards and squash you. Danny
Boyle, who has directed interesting and intelligent films like "28 Days Later",
"Trainspotting" and "Millions", somehow missed the boulder-up-the-hill training
advisory session with his latest, "Sunshine", a film which starts out
promisingly and intelligently, but descends into a conventional horror-slasher
film. One could accuse the writer of being lazy, but the director who
normally is so on target has to take some of the lumps too.
"Sunshine", which opens tomorrow (July 20) in New York, San Francisco
and Los Angeles (and expands next week), features Boyle's "28 Days" star Cillian Murphy as Capa, the only
person who can deliver a payload that can assure survival of the sun and in
turn, humankind. But as always, lives will have to be sacrificed in the
endeavor. Says one of the crew members: "looks like a lot of short
straws."
Looks like a lot of short-tempered audiences.
The heat really is on, not just for the race against the sun to save it from
itself, but for the race for the theater exits, because the second half of this
film is a frustration, degenerating into chaos, one violent episode after
another. There is also a mix of Freddy Krueger, Colonel Kurtz (whom Cliff
Curtis resembles in shots at times, with dark glasses on), and a blast from the
past with a "2001: A Space Odyssey" moment (or three), the voice of the starship
Icarus (or is it HAL?) not withstanding. There is also an occurrence that
comes out of nowhere about two-thirds of the way through "Sunshine". Did
Mr. Boyle and co. run out of ideas? Imagination? Intelligence?
Or were they just plain lazy?
Chris Evans is no longer superhuman as Johnny Storm, the human flame in the
"Fantastic Four" films;
here, in "Sunshine" he is Ace, and he is reduced to mere mortal status, in a
most ironic way from his "Fantastic" exploits. Mr. Curtis, who is good
in most everything he does, continues the tense, clench-jaw act from last
month's "Live Free Or Die Hard". (When we see him, we can tell almost
instantly whether he will thrive or perish. Rose Byrne, Michelle Yeoh,
Hiroyuki Sanada, Benedict Wong, Troy Garrity and Mark Strong are the other
primary crew members.)
For the first hour though, there is tension, suspense, drama and acting decent
enough to sustain interest. And while the predictability and half-hearted
lines ("we're all gonna die out here, aren't we?) there are promising things to
hang your hat on -- story threads that one expects will be explored during the
course of the film, such as the internal dynamic amongst the crew members.
The emotional and historical fabric and background of each of these characters
could (and should) have received a for sustained examination. What kind of
relationships have they had with each other? What are their histories?
What are the psychological dynamics between and amongst them? An
investigation of all of these queries would have made for a stronger suspense
drama.
Instead, the filmmakers go for the schlock and the kind of violence that doesn't
befit "Sunshine" and the intelligent discourse between the accomplished
scientists and crew members that the film promises. Nor does it befit Danny
Boyle, who will do superior work to this in the future. Even filmmakers of
Mr. Boyle's caliber are entitled to off-days. Obviously the boulder got the best
of him.
Maybe the boulder was a shade too hot. And alas, like Icarus, the wings of a
filmmaker on a roll, melted.
"Sunshine" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association
Of America for violent content and language. The film's duration is one
hour and 47 minutes. The film expands its release across the U.S. and
Canada in various cities on Friday, July 27, 2007
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