COVID 19 WATCHLIST: FILMS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED PT. 2
Sunshine (2007)
Once upon a time, Sunshine was recommended to me by a friend on a whim. It went something like, “Oh! You know what you should watch? Sunshine. Cillian Murphy’s in it.”
Yes, quite the glowing review.
We were both on our way to work and couldn’t talk for long, so naturally, his casual recommendation fell out of mind pretty quickly. That was until I stumbled across Sunshine on Amazon Prime, months later. This would be a good time to openly admit that I am a sucker for space horror films. Sure, I can tolerate some of the bad ones, as in, I can have them on in the background while working on my laptop. But the good ones? Alien? Aliens? Uh…um….Event Horizon? Those movies really hit the spot. And so it began. I fell into the rabbit hole of research.
Soon after discovering that Danny Boyle and Alex Garland (28 Days Later) were behind them film, and that the cast included the likes of Rose Byrne, Mark Strong and Hiroyuki Sanada, I was hooked. If you appreciate everything that comes with the space horror genre, the tension, isolation and mostly useless crew members, you will be too.
In Sunshine, a group of astronauts are on a very important mission to revive their sun, which is dying. Their spaceship, Icarus II, is carrying a bomb that can restart it. Unfortunately for them, a trail of bad luck and costly mistakes ensue, jeopardizing everything. Throughout the film, one question is repeated. How far would you go to save your planet? In addition to a pulsating story that allows for little to no breaks, Sunshine manages to be majestically beautiful. If you’re looking for something grotesque or explosive, you might want to check elsewhere. But if you love convincing and wondrous visuals, then you’ve just uncovered a hidden gem. While not on the level of something like Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, several shots of Icarus II and the ever-important sun are nothing short of stunning. Even some of the deaths strike the tricky balance between brutal and breathtaking cinema.
As with most well-made films, the bread and butter of this 2007 feature are the characters. With the exception of Troy Garity’s shaky performance as Harvey, Sunshine’s diverse cast deliver measured and compelling performances that will keep you on the edge of your seat. The criminally underrated Cillian Murphy and Chris Evans shine as flawed rivals turned sympathetic heroes. Roger Ebert said it the best, “(they) are effective by trying not to be too effective; they almost all play professional astronaut/scientists, and not action-movie heroes.” This goes to make their internal struggles with the film’s philosophical questions more believable and heart-wrenching. This is Sunshine at its best; interesting characters grappling with interesting dilemmas in the face of interesting stakes. In space.
Granted, the final act is a bit of a disappointment and there’s no way that a ship would be able to fly that close to the sun, but you know what? It doesn’t matter. The respect and craft that this film exudes elevates the sum above some of its less than impressive parts.