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Summary: Simply the "BEST PICTURE of the YEAR" -Enough Said !!
Review: This film is amazing...If you want to watch a real movie this is it. You need to be an intelligent human being to understand this film. It gets very deep with history/love/war and thats about it. Watch it ..You won't be disappointed !!!
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Summary: Soft Core Pornography
Review: This movie is soft core pornography masquerading as a Holocaust film. This atrocious movie has amazingly received decent reviews from the critics. Apparently the Director determined correctly that it would not be politically correct to give a bad rating to a film featuring the Holocaust. The movie is about several generations of adulterers with minimal character development. The acting is at best wooden - at times almost laughably poor. Even the best actors would have had difficulty with this script. The movie covers the Holocaust in what seemed about 5 minutes. Despite it's seemingly interminable 3 hour length, it's story gives the appearance of being rushed with huge gaps. The conclusion of the movie is the almost Hitlerian notion that Jews shouldn't assimilate because they are a race and the rest of the world hates them. The truth is that there are Jews of almost every race. The truth is that Jews should maintain their identity because Judaism - the faith - is a tree of life to those who grasp it.
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Summary: History of Jewish Family for Three Generations in Hungary
Review: "Sunshine" is a fast-paced choronicle of a Jewish family for three generations, who had to live amid the stormy history of Hungary. Ralph Fiennes (known for his role in "English Patient") plays three roles here: Ignatz, an elite judge under the Hungarian empire; Adam, his son and an Olympic gold medalist for fencing; and Ivan, Adam's son and an officer under Stalinism. The impressive cast include the following: Jennifer Ehle (Elizabeth of "Pride and Prejudice"); Rosemary Harris ("Tom and Viv" "Spider-man" and known as Jennifer's real-life mother); Rachel Weisz ("The Mummy"); Deborah Kara Unger ("Crush"); James Frain ("Count of Monte Cristo"); John Neville (TV's "X-Files"); and always good William Hurt and Molly Parker. The film starts with the origin of the prospering family Sonnenschein when the great-great grandfather of the narrator Ivan Sonnenschein finds a secret recipe for medicine, which becomes an instant hit, and the family make a fortune. But a terrible accident kills him, leaving behind the money and the recipe. Until here, it takes only about five minutes. Then, you must realize that "Sunshine" does not use an ordinary, traditional storytelling. Sure, as I said, Ralph Fiennes plays three roles in this three-hour film, which means, you are going to see three one-hour sections that cover three generations; first, our hero under Hungarian monarchy; second, him before and during the Nazi occupation; last, him under the totalitarian government during Stalinism. The film reflects three eras of Hungary, none of which are stable or peaceful. Of course, the film is about the Sonnenscheins, but at the same time it is about the turbulent history of the country. So, at first sight, "Sunshine" looks overcrowded with characters, and many of them are given too short time to be really rounded and lively. It is also true that "Sunshine" sometimes heavily relies on its melodramatic plot device, which literally flies faster than any TV soap operas. When you see the three heroes played by Fiennes always fall in love with the wrong women, causing conflicts within and without himself, you may think that the script is too repetitious and self-indulgent. Perhaps, it should be so. The film goes intentionally fast, tracing the ups and downs of the family. But the real hero must be the time or history itself, which relentlessly influences the fate of each family member, and even the apparently solid systems of Hungarian governments. After watching the three-hour chronicle, which actually seems like flying, you may feel something is missing; or the story itself looks too trite and obvious. But, remember, so is the history of any nation, which looks as if repeating itself countless times, never learning anything from the past. But how can we get out of this karma? By the time you come to the touching ending, where you realize that the most stable and level-headed character turns out NOT the hero, but someone else; then you know that the history of Hungary, or any other countries, is ultimately supported by women. Final verdict. "Sunshine" may scare some people with its running time (nearly 3 hours), but its fast pace and keen eye for history will attract those who love epic-scale stories. Some may complain that it is too fast, but by the time you reach the final segment when Rosemary Harris with her moving performance appears, everything should be forgiven.
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Summary: History Repeats Itself
Review: Narrated by the great-grandson of Sonnenschein, the movie reflects on three generations of Jewish men living in Budapest trying to gain acceptance in a country that doesn't embrace them because of their religious background.
The great-grandfather came to the city and set up his distillery business hoping that his sons would take over. Unfortunately, neither son Gustave nor Ignaz gets into the business. Gustav is a doctor and socialist, while his brother Ignaz is in the legal profession. The grandfather, Ignaz changed his name to Sors to assimilate into their society and gain a position as a judge. His patriotism drives a wedge between his brother and his wife/sister Valerie. The father, Adam, becomes a fencing champion for his country but his country betrays him when they side with Germany. Adam and his son, Ivan are sent to Siberia where Adam has met his death refusing to be known as just a Jew. Ivan watches as he is stripped naked, beaten and froze to death.
Ivan, in the present fifties, like his father and grandfather, is too seeking acceptance. He joins the Communist Party but finds out that he is getting more than what he has bargained for.
Each generation must learn from his past in order to live in the present and create a future for the next generation. I found the movie at times tedious but it was a lesson to be learned on becoming the person to be and gaining acceptance of others and oneself.
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Summary: Real values you have to find for yourself
Review: This is a wonderful film as it shows the hypocracies of life. To be tortured by the Hungarian Fascists just to turn into a Communist torturer of the former torturers makes perfect sense to me. This IS HISTORY. There are plenty of cases of people who started as Communists turned into Nazis and ended up "Democrats". Now, I call this the instinct of survival which in turn is very human... I would recommend this highly to any teacher or person interested in the period of history between 1890s to 1960s. This film may be able to explain - as much as a movie can do that, of course - why people do certain things at a certain time. Because they want to survive in times of trouble and most people would not have the guts to stand up against totalitarian ideas. I wonder whether I would have the guts myself. Buy it, it is worth it. Fine performance by Ralph Fiennes. A last thing: it is certainly not a movie that would doubt the value of every single political idea. No, it just sends out the message that if you look for a sense of life and values therin, do not look into politics or political ideas. For that, you need to open your eyes and look around for yourself.
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Summary: Dark and ultimately inane
Review: This is a film that keeps your attention throughout, but leaves a bad taste by the end. The film presents with honesty some of the horrors of Nazism and Communism in Eastern Europe. But its message at the end, which is not subtle at all, is that all "politics" is bad, that good people should not serve any ideology. I suppose that's a message that strikes a chord among some jaded Europeans. It's a message that deflates the movie for those of us who think that democracy and freedom are political ideas worth defending. The movie also provides a jaded, European view of Jews. The movie contains some strong scenes about the ugliness of anti-Semitism. Yet, the movie seems at pains to suggest that Jews were not exactly innocent victims -- there's a major character who converts to Christianity and starts to make ethnic slurs of his own against Jews; there's his son who goes from being an inmate in a concentration camp to working for the secret police and hunting down participants in the "Zionist conspiracy"; there's a protracted scene accusing the Jews of failing to fight back against the Nazis. It was interesting to watch and try to see where the movie was going with all this. But in the end, it didn't go anywhere.
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Summary: Really I'd give this three and a half
Review: Sunshine is a fantistically made, beautifully acted, and stunningly filmed movie. This maybe one of the most enchanting visual film experiences I've had in a long time. The landscape is amazing and is filmed to perfection, especially in the first of the three vignettes. The photography crew and the director all have amazing artistic eyes; they make the imagery carry the flick. In addition to its mesmerizing visual qualities, Sunshine is very well performed. While Fiennes is clearly the star and the person the movie successfully relies on, the supporting cast does more than hold its own. The dialogue, for the most part, is well written, though some of the voice overs are a little choppy.
The most impressive part about both the direction and the writing is how well and seamlessly they deal with some very difficult themes. Sunshine includes commentary on anti-seminitism, assimilation, individuality and political upheaval, amongst some other more minor themes. These are all clearly difficult topics for any artist to work on without ending heavy handed. Sunshine does just that; I never felt assaulted or preached to. That is a true testiment to the film makers. But despite all of the this, the film's character development is quite flawed. All of the characters in the first third of the movie feel real, like human beings, like people with true personalities and motivations. But as the film progresses, the characters begin to fade, perhaps in the interests of the plot and perhaps to keep a slow-paced movie moving. Either way, this is a mistake. The female characters in particular begin to feel like stereotypes; the love affairs stop being developed until the final third when Fiennes' romance with Deborah Unger (Highlander 3) is completely unexplained. Even Fiennes' characters (especially in the final third--until the last couple of scenes) start to seem a little less real, a little harder to accept. (This is why I will say that Fiennes' performance was brilliant; despite underdeveloped characters, he left me believing in his actions.) This left me questioning the plot as well as the characters. In a film written from character and dominated by its performers that is a difficult flaw to overcome. With that said, in the end Sunshine succeeds and is worth viewing. Just understand it isn't perfect.
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Summary: sweeping saga
Review: I was totally blown away by this multi-generational saga. Yes, it was long, but the film needed the time to fully show the characters development and to weave the plot. I was impressed with Fiennes ability to play three distinct parts so well, although I was not surprised since he is such a talented actor. This movie is a much overlooked gem!
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Summary: Failed to live up to its potential
Review: Sunshine has a great number of good points: beautiful cinematography, wonderful music, Budapest's great scenery, and a good cast. However, all these assets were wasted on soap opera-like melodrama and gratuitous sex scenes. The female characters, even Valerie to some extent, are cyphers that are only there to seduce the three characters played by Ralph Fiennes. I am disappointed with Mr. Fiennes' choice of roles in the past several years as he only seems to reprise his role in The English Patient over and over again. Instead of the melodrama and trite symbolism, the film could have further explored the characters' drives for assimilation and faith. The tumultuous political events and their impact on the characters' lives are not fully explored and only play second fiddle to Mr. Fiennes' posterior.
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Summary: Poignant and Beautiful film
Review: I loved this film. It's rather long, but the time is well spent. It's really three stories in one as the film deals with the events of 4 generations of a high middle class family of Jewish Hungarians as they live through the Hapsburg empire, its fall in WW1, the Nazi perios, the Communist period and beyond the 1956 soviet Invasion. fiennes plays the first born heir in each generation. There are plenty of history lessons and even a well built sequence of scenes involving fencing. As the film becomes engrossed in the Nazi era - as well as other parts - the film deals with anti-semitism; however, it's not the Speolberg shove down your throat kind of depoction. It's more subtle and far more effective as it emphasises the common humanity that this family shared with the rest of the world. Underscorimng the beauty of the film and the story is the poignant music of Schubert's Fantasia for 2 pianos which is amsot a family songs as its members all play the piano. I advise it's not a happy film, but it is ultimately optimistic. It is certainly a beautiful film.
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