Sunshine

This film gives Ralph Fiennes his best performance since Schindler's List here in a triple play as three characters in a 3 hour film. The story follows three generations of Hungarian jews, the first a traditional one, the second changing to Catholic, and the third to Communist, but all in the spirit of Hungarian ways. Exceptional film with Fiennes giving the control of the film by making it interesting for 3 hours (the second time he's done that). One of the better films (top 10-20) of the new year. A

`Sunshine' is a forceful and wonderful film that follows four generations of a Jewish Hungarian family through seventy tumultuous years of Hungarian history. The story is extremely well done with rich finely etched characters. The screenplay is better suited for a miniseries than a three hour film simply because there is so much material to cover. Three hours is both too long and too short; the story is emotionally exhausting making it too long for one sitting, yet the total length is not long enough to do the subject matter justice.

Hungarian Writer/Director Istvan Szabo captures Hungary's turbulent transition from empire to fascist state to soviet satellite weaving the history of the times into the lives of this extraordinary family. He puts a human face on the historical facts giving us a disturbingly real look at what it might have been like to live through it, especially from the Jewish perspective.

Despite a whirlwind pace that requires years to be spanned in minutes, Szabo manages to conjure deep and insightful character studies of the members of each generation. His period renderings are exquisite from costumes to props to locations. This is a wonderfully textured presentation with history layered over the human stories, addressing the many indignities suffered by Jews in Hungary during the period, and the many concessions made to merely stay alive. It is a story that contains both triumph and tragedy, presented with amazing candor.

Ralph Fiennes gives three incredible performances as the grandfather, father and son of the patriarchy. Szabo has endured criticism for casting the same actor in three roles, but in this case it is an excellent choice. Fiennes is a versatile artist and personalizes three radically different characters, slipping on their personalities like a glove. He loses himself in each, rendering them all passionately but appropriately based on the motivations established in Szabo's careful character development. With Szabo's guidance, it is clear that Fiennes has an inherent understanding of the psyche of his three characters and plays them with believable nuance.

Two different actresses play Valerie and each is splendid. Jennifer Ehle plays the young Valerie and endows her with ardor and vivacity. She establishes Valerie as the strongest continuing character in the film, providing linkage between the past and the present. In another stroke of casting brilliance, Szabo selects Ehle's real life mother, Rosemary Harris as the elder Valerie. The clear resemblance linked with Harris' magnetic performance adds fullness to Valerie's later years. William Hurt and James Frain lead an ensemble of strong supporting actors that give the film great intensity and depth of talent.

This thoughtful and emotionally provocative character study is engrossing and compelling. I rated it a 9/10 only because I wish Szabo would have gone deeper and divided it into two or three installments. On a dramatic and artistic level, this film is first rate.

Ok, this is my third comment about a Ralph Fiennes movie in just under a week...five days to be precise. If there ever was a role on this earth that he could not play, I haven't seen it yet...or putting it simply, such a role has never been written. Ralph Fiennes is extraordinary as all three characters that he plays in this film. Characters who are completely different from one another, with different ideals and different beliefs. His dialogue delivery, his expressions, everything is marvellous. His eyes say it all. This role should've given him an Oscar nomination. When he smiles, you smile, when he cries, you cry. He is just a brilliant, brilliant actor.

The movie was very interesting, though very depressing at times. It gave some interesting views on the treatment of the Jews during World War II and the progression of Fienne's character from one generation to the next and how the current situation of the world in each character's time contributed to his thinking and views of the world.

Supported by an exceptional cast... Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz (I wanted her role to be a little longer), Jennifer Ehle, William Hurt. Very good movie. Highly recommended. ****/*****

One of the best films I've seen in many years. Long by current standards, but my interest/involvement never lagged for a moment. It works on many levels, all of which examine and ultimately show the futility of assimilation, given how unstable and unreliable is any governmental structure with which one attempts to identify. Effort to assimilate across generations in Hungary becomes increasingly demanding as the lived world becomes ever more dehumanizing and brutal. Fiennes has never been better in cross-generational roles, and others excellent as well. But a woman is the censor and conscience across time.

We just rented the DVD of this, without any prior knowledge of the story, and took it just on the strength of the major players. It was very beautifully filmed, and the entire cast was believable. Fiennes gave a stellar performance as three members of the family. The history of the terrible times and the emotional traumas was heart breaking. We are old enough to remember much of wartimes portrayed, and can only feel great pain in seeing what is happening in this year 2002, during a time when our present administration is "saber-rattling" and trying to convince the public that war is the only answer. After viewing this we looked into Maltin's latest 2003 movie guide, and were aghast at his first sentence:"Ambitious, but trite, rambling soap opera chronicaling a Hungarian Jewish family over three generations". This is like saying "Gone with the Wind" is about a silly girl who makes a gown out of draperies!!