2007: Sunshine

Sunshine (Boyle, 2007) 7/10

In 2057, global warming has yet to occur. The sun rests in space as a fossilized vessel: a dying star enveloping Earth in an everlasting state of winter, a new Ice Age. In a last grasp of fate and destiny, a crew of astronauts, psychologists and scientists has been assembled with the task of re-igniting the sputtering flame through the detonation of a nuclear payload in the solar core.

This is the backdrop to Sunshine, the latest effort by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting; 28 Days Later) and his frequent collaborator author Alex Garland. Beginning in media res, Sunshine introduces us to Earth's saviors as they are slowly inching past the planet Mercury. After the failed mission of the original Icarus, the crew of the Icarus 2 represent the last attempt to salvage Earth. Under the planet's present conditions, there are no more materials for armaments.

Therefore, through conservation and recycling techniques, the crew has managed to maximize the potential of their water and food rations with the intent of jettisoning their payload and returning home. As their ship the Icarus 2 sails closer to the sun, the once placid crew relations begin to fragment; the loss of telecommunications with Earth intensifies tensions within the claustrophobic surroundings.

Interactions further sour, when a distress signal from the previously missing Icarus 1 emerge outside the sun's exterior. Schisms develop as crew members bicker about responding to the calls, whilst fears arise over the success of the virtually suicidal mission and the safety of the ship. Soon disaster strikes and despite the crew's disconnection from Earth, their basic human emotions are in full-force at the expense of the mission itself.

In its first two-thirds, Boyle's multi-faceted sci-fi film channels earlier "thinking-man's" sci-films such as Andrei Tarkovsky's Solaris and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Debates rage as crew members testify their raw feelings about life's necessities and responsibilities. From these philosophical and intellectual actions the value of life and the notion of mankind emerges at the forefront. Human self-interest and a lust for power take over in a situation that requires full-fledged co-operation; democracy itself is abandoned in preference to an intellectual autocracy.

In these segments, Boyle's film is a wonderful meditation on humanity and life: a realistic study that presses greed before selflessness. Together Garland and Boyle, create a dynamic basis for a film, yet it is a narrative that rapidly unhinges by the film's denouement. Rather, than continue with a salubrious study of unconscious destruction, Boyle's film swerves into the cozy confines of the horror film. Despite creating a brilliant framework for a conclusion involving unmitigated psychosis or the over-reliance of technology, Boyle's film chooses to utilize the Alien model of attrition through separation; making the latter-third of Sunshine feel uncomfortably chaotic.

Despite adept performances by an international cast including Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans and Cliff Curtis, Garland's script offers little information beyond improportionate offerings to the character's histories and intentions. With deftly rounded characters, Boyle's film could have continued on a trajectory of continual destruction due to internal human causes, rather than engaging in the myopic and hazy inclusion of external causes. Certainly the former path could have been compatible with Boyle and Garland's interest in the fate of humanity resting on a single shoulder.

Nevertheless in spite of its flaws, Sunshine is an interesting, often beautifully constructed cinematic experience. Alwin H. Kulcher's cinematography is masterful, particularly in his utilization of slow motion and the sharpness of his colour patterns. In a film that relies heavily on darkness and light, Kulcher's cinematography enhances the underlying motifs within Boyle's film of characters who are blinded by the battle between their external responsibilities and internal conflicts. Furthermore through Mark Tildesley's production design, Sunshine is gifted an artificial environment that furthers the mental fissures of characters, yearning for an end to nights plagued by fateful dreams and days spend in cramped working quarters.

Set a mere fifty years in the future, Sunshine is not to be taken necessarily as a realistic study of Earth's impending future. Rather in its socio-political undercurrents, the film is a steady indictment of humanity's inability to co-operate in times of despair. All though the film's latter third engages in genre trivialities, Sunshine is an astutely-paced sci-fi thriller, which appropriately builds suspense and yet manages to espouse philosophical questions that ultimately shape humanity on a daily basis.

* Sunshine is available on DVD through Fox Home Video

Copyright 2008 8½ Cinematheque