Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Jennifer Ehle, Rachel Weisz, Deborah Unger, Molly Parker, John Neville, James Frain, William Hurt
Director: Istvan Szabo
Producers: Robert Lantos, Andras Hamori
Screenplay: Istvan Szabo, Israel Horovitz
Cinematography: Lajos Koltai
Music: Maurice Jarre
U.S. Distributor: Paramount Classics
Yet another movie that made its world debut as a Gala at the Toronto International Film Festival has reached local screens. Istvan Szabo's Sunshine was one of many motion pictures shown during the festival's 1999 edition to transpire during the war years in Europe, but, while most of those were intimate stories, this one is epic in both scope and length. The longest film screened during the 1999 festival, Sunshine runs an unapologetic three hours, and features a high-level, international cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, John Neville, and William Hurt. Szabo, the acclaimed director of such films as 1981's Mephisto (for which he won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar), has lavished a great deal of time and attention on crafting a grand, beautifully shot motion picture that engages audiences for the full running length.
The film follows three generations of the Sonnenschein family, a close-knit clan of Hungarian Jews who live and struggle through two world wars and countless changes of government. Sunshine is loosely divided into three periods. The first spans the era from the late 1800s to the years just after World War I, and focuses on Ignatz Sonnenschein, a judge in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The second picks up in the 1930s and concludes at the end of World War II. The central character during this segment is Ignatz's son, Adam, a fencer who represents Hungary at the 1936 Olympics, but faces persecution from the Nazis despite his fame when he refuses to live by the creed stating that "assimilation is the only possible way." Finally, the third period begins in the late 1940s and finishes around 1960. During that time frame, Sunshine focuses on Adam's son, Ivan, who contends with the various factions of Communism that dominate the post-World War II political climate. One of Szabo's unsubtle "tricks" is to have all three of the central protagonists (grandfather, father, and son) played by the same actor: the versatile Ralph Fiennes. Another character, Valerie (Jennifer Ehle as a young woman; Rosemary Harris in later years), survives virtually the entire movie, providing a glue that holds the story together.
On one level, Sunshine can be viewed as little more than an entertaining historical melodrama about the tribulations of a group of characters set against the backdrop of the century's most important historical events. But there's a deeper theme at work here, as well. It has to do with the repetitive cycle of history and how power inevitably corrupts, no matter who wields it. Throughout Sunshine, governments in Hungary rise and fall - a dictatorship, a Nazi regime, and more than one flavor of Communism - but, despite fundamental philosophical differences, they all bear remarkable similarities to each other. What begins with hope and freshness in each case quickly degenerates into something twisted and rotten. Each of the characters played by Fiennes has an opportunity to be both a hero and a criminal, depending on who is in power.
Playing three different men who are more similar in their physical appearances than in their philosophies, Ralph Fiennes does a solid job, although he has given more deeply nuanced performances in the past. The film's spark plug is Jennifer Ehle (who had the lead role in the astounding made-for-TV miniseries of Pride and Prejudice), who brings a spirit to young Valerie that is as fiery as her red hair. Ehle is only around for the film's first third, and, although Rosemary Harris is effective after inheriting the role, Sunshine is never quite the same.
Over the course of one evening at the movies, Szabo effectively realizes more than 70 years of history, and, in the process presents a gallery of interesting characters. Sub-themes and memorable moments abound. (One of the most compelling scenes depicts the Sonnenschein family gathered around a radio listening anxiously as a Hungarian government official details exactly who will be considered a "Jew" and who is exempt.) Ultimately, the director may have tackled a scope so vast that even three hours is not enough to contain it, but the result, while somewhat uneven and occasionally rushed, is still solidly entertaining and occasionally thought provoking.
© 2000 James Berardinelli