Turn On The Sun

"Turn on the Sun,
Turn on the Sun,
Light up the world,
Come everyone!"

I had cabin fever yesterday and it was a glorious mild Autumn day, so I decided to go out for a wander and get some sunshine. Instead I ended up in a darkened cinema seeing a film called Sunshine.

(Nice segue, right?)

First off I have to say, this is not a 'ziffin film as my friend Megs would say. If you are the sort of person who watches films with a critical eye, saying to yourself "As if!" then this is not a film for you. That's not to say that the logic within the film is poorly constructed, but the basic premis requires a fair suspension of disbelief. 50 years in the future the sun is dying, and after one failed attempt 7 years before, a huge spaceship is sent towards the sun with a bomb payload the size of Manhattan Island. Mission: to turn the Sun back on. See?



Having said that, the film is suspensefull, well acted, visually stunning and thoroughly enjoyable. Also, this is pretty good character driven drama. Danny Boyle also directed Trainspotting and 28 Days Later amongst other films, and I like the way he uses an unexpected visual pallette to enhance the mood and story. Many of the shots in Sunshine have lens flare, or such shallow depth of field that the background is all light bokeh. It's as if 'light' itself is a character in the film, which in a sense it is. The Sun is certainly the presence that looms over the entire film, both beautiful and terrifying.

The other thing that's worth noting, they make spaceship crews kind of handsome 50 years in the future: