Review: Sunshine (*** 1/2)
Steve Rhodes
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 1999 Steve Rhodes
RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2
István Szabó's SUNSHINE is an epic story about three generations of
non-religious Hungarian Jews. Set against the turbulent backdrop of the
changing twentieth century and spanning three repressive regimes
(monarchy, Nazi and Communist), it stars two-time Academy Award nominee
Ralph Fiennes as son, father and grandfather -- an incredible feat that
he pulls off quite convincingly.
Subtly posing provocative questions about love, religion, family,
discrimination and nationalism, the ambitious and successful film has a
single significant flaw -- at 3 full hours, it is too short. With a
great cast, Szabó introduces so much material that a 6-hour miniseries
would have been more appropriate. This however should not dissuade
anyone from seeing this version since it does not suffer from being too
short, rather it just makes us wish it were longer.
"I predict that this will be a century of love, justice and tolerance,"
Ignatz (Fiennes) predicts incorrectly at the start of the twentieth
century. Ignatz is an ambitious and rather malleable judge who bends
too often to the prevailing winds. The love of his live is his sister,
Valerie (Jennifer Ehle), with whom he marries and has children,
including Adam (Fiennes). It's not quite as bad as it seems since they
are actually cousins, but she grew up in their family and he calls her
sister. Ehle looks so fetching that it is easy to understand the
temptation.
This excessive family love will reappear more than once. A generation
later Adam tells his sister-in-law, Greta (Rachel Weisz), "We're lucky
-- in this family everyone is in love with everyone else," and he
doesn't mean this in an entirely positive way.
Valerie is a fascinating character in her own right. She's a free
spirit, who observes, "I want to grow like a wild flower, where it
belongs," when it is suggested that she might want to change countries.
Later in the picture Rosemary Harris (Jennifer Ehle's real-life mother)
gives a wonderfully warm and inviting performance as the older Valerie.
Led by a headstrong Ignatz, the family makes many changes, not the least
of which is changing the family name to something more Hungarian (read
not Jewish). This helps move his career along. Later his son, Adam,
converts to Christianity to advance his prospects. "You made the right
choice -- assimilation is the only way," Adam is congratulated by one of
his well-placed friends.
Adam's son, Ivan (Fiennes), lives through the Nazi era only to discover
that the anti-Semitism is almost as brutal under the Communists.
William Hurt plays a Jew who survives Auschwitz only to become a petty
Communist official not much better than the Nazi ones.
The constant changing of the guard In Hungary is shown through archival
footage into which Fiennes is sometimes placed, giving the movie an
extra dose of realism.
A beautiful film, it has gorgeous cinematography and sumptuous sets,
including lavish interiors of Government buildings and of wood-paneled
coffee houses.
"What was the purpose of this miserable life?" Ignatz's brother, Gustave
(John Neville), asks Valerie on his deathbed. It's a good question and
naturally doubles back on question of the value of God. From Ignatz on,
the family motto seems to be that if you don't believe in God, you might
as well pledge allegiance to which ever God is most popular, hence the
conversion from Judaism to Christianity and later to Stalinism, a state
religion.
"If there is no God and there never was a God, why do we miss him so
much?" Ivan asks Valerie. Another good question. Perhaps part of the
answer lies in the saying that Adam kept on his desk: "We are afraid to
see clearly and to be seen clearly." Ultimately the film is about this
wandering in the wilderness of life, trying to avoid seeing what we want
to ignore and being seen for what we are.
SUNSHINE runs 3:00. It is rated R for sex, violence, language and
nudity and would be acceptable for older teenagers.
The film is playing in nationwide release now in the United States. In
the Silicon Valley it is showing at the Camera 3 in San Jose and the
Park in Menlo Park.
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