Grade: A-
A truly epic film, deserving of every bit of its nearly three-hour running length. Fiennes plays three generations of Hungarian Jews who struggle to fit into society even if they must deny themselves and their gifts to do so. The sprawl of history is on display, but so is human lust, regret and vindictiveness. Plus it's beautiful to watch: a real sleeper and a treat.
Sonnenschein means "sunshine" in German, but for the Sonnenschein family of Budapest, Hungary, there seems hardly ever to be a cloudless day.
The Sonnenscheins have the mixed fortune of being clever, prosperous, talented and comely people of Jewish descent in Eastern Europe during the 20th century, a place and time in which virtually all their good traits are likely to evoke fear, suspicion, jealousy and genocidal mania in those around them.
Sunshine, which tells the story of four generations of the Sonnenscheins, is one of those rare films that not only merits its three-hour running time but demands it: Not only does Sunshine depict the travails of one star-crossed family, it also encapsulates a full history of modern Hungary and, indeed, Europe.
The film is a tour de force for Istvan Szabo, who directed and co-wrote with Israel Horowitz, and for Ralph Fiennes, who extends his string of solid performances in period films by playing three scions of the Sonnenschein family: Ignatz, the nebbishy judge who dearly loves Emperor Franz Josef; Adam, the haughty fencing champion imprisoned in the Holocaust; and Ivan, the rabidly anti-fascist policeman who joins the 1956 anti-Soviet uprising in a startling turn of heart.
That said, the film is so filled with riches that it seems a bit unfair to single out Szabo and Fiennes, no matter how outstanding their work. Two actresses, for instance, play the role of Valerie Sonnenschein, cousin and wife to Ignatz, mother to Adam, grandmother to Ivan. She alone spans all the generations of the story, and it's Szabo's great inspiration and fortune to have Jennifer Ehle play her as a spirited lass and Ehle's real-life mother, the great Rosemary Harris, portray the character later in life. There are fine turns by William Hurt as a communist policeman with a wise and forgiving heart and Miriam Margolyes and David De Keyser as the founding mother and father of the Sonnenschein dynasty -- hardly a role isn't well-played.
tIn spots, the film sags, but it reawakens through Szabo's continual return to the central theme of masking, hiding and assimilating: Whether it's Ignatz's decision to change the family name to Sors (Hungarian for 'fate'), Adam's donning of the protective mask of the amateur swordsman, or Ivan's attempt to avenge the family's suffering through the guise of officialdom, the Sonnenscheins are haunted by the need to seem other than what they truly are.
And the viewer, too, is haunted by this vital, sprawling and intelligent story.
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