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Sunshiney

It is the very near future and the Sun is dying. Faced with extermination a multi-national crew have been sent on a mission to restart the Sun’s dying core by means of a bomb, although this is put less brutally as ‘the payload’. From the beginning Sunshine conveys a sense of spectacle you wouldn’t expect from a British film (ok, with help from Fox). It sets up a procedural space journey tone very close to Alien. While never quite troubling the Sci-fi classics that have gone before there is a contemporary edge to Danny Boyle’s direction that is light years from such turgid efforts as the Solaris remake, The Core, or Armageddon. It’s true that after an atmospheric opening which is content to make its case purely on the basis of film technique and minimal plot the crew of the Icarus 2 find themselves a little too crudely at the mercy of a dubious arrival of genre. That they happen on a distress call from the first Icarus, an attempt 7 years before to kickstart the Sun which failed, isn’t the problem. Indeed, the notion of the SOS is explored with a psychological depth which recalls Tarkovsky’s Solaris and 2001, however the execution falls some way short. For exposition it could have taken a few lessons from Hal Holbrook in Capricorn 1 who tells the astronauts that the intended Mars landing is a fit-up job. Cillian Murphy is the de facto lead and he meets the challenge well but he’s poorly served by Alex Garland in a crucial scene where he must decide which course the Icarus must take. As Sunshine lurches into a disaster movie the action ratchets up impressively, always there is an abundance of stylish design and special mention has to be given to the soundtrack; Underworld like Orbital, are a dab hand at lending a film a mysterious gravitas. Although in the same manner the film is a very adept tour through its influences so it might be said Underworld’s cosmic syth-wash floats a lot like Brian Eno. There is a playful confluence of genre which leaves the serious metaphysical stuff for the more commercial thrills of Hollywood cinema. Sunshine never plays anything quite sincerely: the hard science drama, psychological character game, the disaster film, the serious reflection on mortality, and the horror all end up vying for contention. Certainly, there is an ambition here that comes of wanting a film to have the scope of truly memorable cinema. Danny Boyle has looked back at earlier classic films and some of their quality has rubbed off. Next to Kubrick’s 2001 it might not be so wise to revisit Sunshine but it has a relevance in the tenuous plight of mankind theme and its looks alone are enough to make this Boyle’s best effort since Trainspotting.

Charles Maclean