Les derniers rayons de soleil

A brilliant movie for so many reasons (my gf had an entirely different take on this but I loved the discussion it opened, which eventually brought me here). The kind of cast who each can shine in their own right, visuals that would still be considered top notch a decade and a half later, a goosebump inducing sound/music score and a concept that is thought provoking and shines a light to so many aspects of humanity. To some a slightly shaky 3rd act and while it does feel like someone else took the reigns for 20mins or so of its direction, it's brought together in a stunning finale. The overwhelming enormity of space vs humanity's drive to dictate our destiny and the spectrum of characters earth entrusts to save the planet play together in a beautiful, bleak way. If a film can have me still thinking about concepts, faith and morality after and the score genuinely have an emotional impact, as a director I could say I've done a job well done.

Sunshine cost £20 million. Jerry Bruckheimer and his Hollywood cohorts must be shaking their heads in disbelief. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland, British born and bred, have outdone America's effects laden finest, and at a mere fraction of the price. Armageddon ($140 million) and Pirates of The Caribbean 2 ($225 million) have nothing, nothing on the majestic visuals that Sunshine offers. From the jaw dropping opening sequence to the fantastically realised final moments, Boyle's latest is a mighty treat for the eyes.

But of course, effects do not make a film. You need only consider the two aforementioned Bruckheimer blowouts for proof. But happily, behind the blinding visuals, Sunshine has a violently beating heart. One that offers absolutely no let up, that gains speed and then gains a little more, before finally threatening cardiac arrest. You can't help but live and breath every moment of the crew's breathless existence.

The year is 2057 and a select group of astronauts are given that most trifling of tasks. The sun is dying. Drop a bomb in it. Save all of mankind. And to top it all, on a ship rather ominously named 'Icarus II'. Add inevitable inter crewmember tension and you have a rather heated situation. The sweaty crew are played wonderfully by a decidedly un-starry, but talented cast. Cilian Murphy, taking the lead role as the ship's resident physicist Cappa, the only member who has the wherewithal to actually drop the bomb, is coolly enigmatic as ever, the blue orbs of his eyes forming a nice counterpoint to the never far rather redder orb of the sun. You can't help but feel he isn't particularly challenged as an actor, but nevertheless he provides a suitably ambivalent, androgynous and faintly unsettling core to the proceedings.

Perhaps more impressive is Chris Evans. Recently seen in a similarly hot headed role in the undercooked comic book adaptation 'Fantastic Four', he consistently snatches scenes from Murphy as engineer Mace, about as volatile and fiery as Cappa is composed and cool. Without Evan's energetic performance, the film would sink into an anti-libidinal quag. Mace's emotive instability injects pace when it's needed and brings some welcome variety to the otherwise glum faces. Evans is surely on the brink of big things. A small quibble would be that there are perhaps a few too many characters; meaning that a fair share of the cast never really gets a chance for development, which is irritating, as one gets the feeling that there's a lot of wasted potential.

Another chink in Sunshine's spacesuit, is in many places, Alex Garland's screenplay. Whilst he has a remarkable talent for creating intense psychological tension, of which there is plenty in Sunshine, his philosophising is much less satisfactory. This is not to say he doesn't play with some fascinating ideas. With the crew circling so close to the Sun, to the giver of life, Garland begins ask the biggest of questions. Is there something, something inestimably greater than ourselves, something that could create such a magnificent star, or are we, like the sun, simply dust? It's a great idea, but for the larger part of the film, it seems oddly shoehorned into what is at base a sci-fi pot-boiler. In fact these ideas are better expressed in Boyle's imagery. Time and time again we see members of the crew staring aghast at the immensity of the burning ball of gas and dust in front of them. The relationship between giver and taker is better explored here than in any line of Garland's.

The structure of his screenplay is also a little unwieldy. The first hour and a half play as an intense psychological study - the pace at times painfully weighty as the tension is ratcheted up ever higher. The film works beautifully here - it may not introduce anything particularly new; claustrophobic stress is certainly nothing new in sci-fi, but it follows genre conventions with such panache and artistry that it's difficult to fault. However, come the final 20 minutes, Sunshine takes a rather abrupt and unwelcome turn. A pretty hammy (not to mention poorly explained) plot twist is ushered in and suddenly we find ourselves in a horror film - a clichéd one at that. To say much more would spoil things, but needless to say, had the filmmakers showed a little restraint in the closing moments, they would have had a real classic on their hands. When the film ditches pretensions, and sticks with the clammy, slow burn thrills it excels at, it's fantastic. When it descends into predictable melodrama, it's still alright, it's just disappointing considering what we know it's capable of. As such it's remarkably well shot, superbly rendered, occasionally poignant and occasionally flawed. Whatever the case, Sunshine is never far from entirely thrilling, and, all said and done, film recommendations don't come much higher than that.

It's 50 years in the future. Eight astronauts on Icarus II are sent to restart the Sun as it begins to die. Icarus I was lost seven years ago for unknown reasons. Communications Officer Harvey (Troy Garity) finds a distress call from Icarus I. Psychiatrist Searle (Cliff Curtis) recommends to rendezvous despite engineer Mace (Chris Evans)'s objection for the extra bomb. Physicist Capa (Cillian Murphy) reluctantly agrees. Navigator Trey (Benedict Wong) miscalculates the new trajectory and Captain Kaneda (Hiroyuki Sanada) is killed. Trey goes crazy and is sedated. They board Icarus I leaving pilot Cassie (Rose Byrne) and botanist Corazon (Michelle Yeoh) on Icarus II.

Director Danny Boyle uses the sun as a visual effect and it's amazing. The look of it is beautiful and industrial. The cast is intriguing. The movie is reminiscent of Alien and then it tries to follow it into slasher horror. That may have been a mistake. I'm more concerned about the confused nature of the last act. However I just love the look and feel of this world.

I'm not going to drop any spoilers here. I will simply say that for the first hour this movie is superb, with an excellent cast, a beautiful orchestral score, and a solid script based on a wonderfully grandiose Big Sci-Fi Idea.

However, an hour in things begin to degrade, with a couple of poor plot decisions that could have been forgiven if they had just moved on. But an hour and 16 minutes in they double down on one particularly bad plot choice, and the film degenerates into horror movie cliches (yes, horror) which simply have no place here and ruined what would have been and unusually sublime and moving science fiction drama. I would love to know what in the world they were thinking, allowing the script to devolve and go in a direction that does not do justice to all of the other labor and excellent creative decisions that went into other aspects of the movie. What a shame.

I loved Danny Boyle's "Shallow Grave" I thought there was a Polanskian, Hitchcockian, Chabrolian creature trying to come out. I was wrong - it happens more often than not - but Danny is moving away from me or I from him, in any case we're like strangers now. What made me love "Shallow Grave" were the characters and the way he introduced them to us. I felt involved, totally involved. In "Sunshine" the detachment was such that I couldn't even follow. Impressive, virtuoso film-making to be sure but cold an impersonal. I could watch Cillian Murphy's face for hours without getting bored but I got bored looking at his face because I didn't have a clue who he was and after a while, I didn't care. Mr Boyle, go back to graves, human graves, earth graves, please, do it for me.