Son of the Sunshine

Sonny Johnns suffers from Tourette's Syndrome. He lives with his angry sister Meryl and weak-minded mom Liz in a rundown house in Toronto. He saved up his disability money to pay for an experimental surgery. Meryl moves out to live with uncle Leonard. Sonny recovers without his symptoms. He meets a drunken wild Arielle and moves in with her. They encounter a woman hit by a car and he tries to save her. His supernatural powers are gone. Meryl tells Arielle of a childhood incident. Liz's abusive boyfriend tells Sonny of a shocking secret about his father.

The first half has a nice low life indie feel. The supernatural stuff comes out of nowhere in the second half. It would be nice to have foreshadowing in that opening montage of Meryl falling off the bridge. A flashback is also needed when Meryl tells Arielle of that incident. This is an interesting indie with ambitions.

I felt the need to create an IMDb account to respond to one viewer's comments regarding this amazing film. I had the pleasure of seeing "Son of the Sunshine" on Saturday, September 5th at the Montreal World Film Festival. It completely floored me.

I had heard about the film through the Montreal Gazette which totally hyped the film for me. I was not disappointed. The acting is amazing, especially the lead Ryan Ward - who also directs the film. His portrayal of a man with Tourette's Syndrome was intense and really believable.

Another thing that I really enjoyed about the film was its originality. First of all, I had never heard of a film handing this disorder in a dramatic way. My cousin suffers from a mild form of Tourette's and I was worried that I would be offended. But Ward's portrayal is not a caricature, and he never over-acts. I will not give anything away relating to the plot, but I will say that I have never seen a narrative drama pieced together so interestingly and originally. The film is like a poem.

As far as the technical concerns the other viewer mentioned, when I saw the film, everything looked great. There were some focus issues during one scene, but according to IMDb, the budget on this was 100K. And it was shot on film. That is like Linklater's "SLACKER" if you adjust for inflation – and this film had a way bigger cast and way more locations. I also thought the cinematography was great! Really gave the film a gritty feeling, while the flares of light also gave it a beauty.

I looked at the film's poster after I saw the film and it is playing in a whole bunch of good festivals including Vancouver. So I guess other people are really enjoying it too. Not having any stars in the film might stop it from being seen by a wider audience, but I hope they come out with a DVD. I think it is a fantastic piece of independent film-making. A must see - especially if you are Canadian! Not too many films like this come out of this country.