Powerful

Absolutely amazing

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

This is an 'epic' tale of three generations of a Hungarian Jewish family throughout the 20th century.It has a slight 'slap in the face' quality. Nothing is left to the imagination, as at the beginning when, just in case you don't know what an exploding brewery looks like, you get to see one.It's all very titillating; from grand sword fighting duels, sadism in concentration camps, OTT domestic arguments, to looking up Jennifer Ehle's skirt.It was the director's brainchild. Watch the actors interviewed in the 'making of' say how brilliant he is in the most deadpan way, and what a pleasure it was for them to be involved in the execution of his master plan.

This superb film by Istvan Szabo is everything one could have hoped for from him. He and Marta Meszaros have been the leading Hungarian film directors for decades. This is his masterpiece. Nearly three hours long (although eight minutes have been cut from the released version for the DVD version), it still seems incomplete, as if it should have been a six-hour television series. It is in the great tradition of German and Central European 'family saga' stories, of which the most famous is the novel 'Buddenbrooks' by Thomas Mann. Although the family in this film is Jewish, named Sonnenschein ('sunshine'), this is absolutely not a holocaust film. There are no scenes in concentration camps, but one extremely harrowing scene at a round-up point for Jews bound for one. If the Jewish theme is anything, it is that of the futility of attempts at assimilation. The Sonnenscheins of Hungary do everything they can to assimilate, changing their name to Sors (a Hungarian name), and even converting to Roman Catholicism. But it is all to no avail. The anti-Semitism is so ubiquitous, so relentless, so maniacal, that all efforts are dashed. However, the Nazi era is just one era in this family saga. We are taken through the Imperial era, and later the Communist Era both pre-1956 and post-1956 up to 'the present'. Ralph Fiennes accomplishes one of the greatest feats possible, of playing three successive generations of men of the same family! He does this with total success, and thereby proves himself a true acting genius. Valerie Sonnenschein/Sors is played when young by Jennifer Ehle, and when old by her real-life mother, Rosemary Harris. It is hard to remember a finer performance by either. Szabo must be a truly inspiring director for his actors. This film was very personal to him, and the huge flat where the Sonneschein/Sors family live is the one where Szabo himself grew up as a child. Bill Paterson delivers a wonderful performance, and as someone who is so quintessentially British, to appear successfully as a Hungarian was an astonishing feat. Rachel Weisz gives an intense and passionate performance, as one would expect from her. The story is original from Szabo, who did the first version of the script, but the final screenplay was evidently by that friend of my youth, Israel (Artie') Horovitz. I still have the hand-mimeographed copy he gave me of what I believe was his first one-act play, 'The Hanging of Emmanuel', asking for my opinion at the time. I can give him one of this film now: if he had done nothing else in his lifetime but write this magnificent screenplay, he could walk tall and proud through all of his days. If only this film could be shown in schools, to educate the ignorant young who now know nothing about what happened more than five minutes ago! This film is a testament, and testaments are what we need above all today when he have a failure of collective memory in society, and when people live only in a present of a few minutes' duration, oblivious of both past and future as if they were dumb beasts or even insensate plants.

Sunshine wonderfully depicts the waves of politics that have affected Hungary and led to its tragic history as well as how these political regimes affected Hungarians. Even if specifically focusing on a Jewish family I do think many of the struggles can be universally applied to Hungarians or Central/Eastern Europeans. This is however not just a history lesson but a touching and emotional account of a family's struggle through the times. The acting is impressive and choosing Ralph Fiennes for the leading role was a great move as he has already studies the culture and the meaning of being Hungarian for the English patient.Definitely worth watching!

My favorite film is "Gone With The Wind" so I have nothing against long films. This was an exceptional account of three generations of a family, but I found it interminable at times. Despite the fine performances, the incredible film making, and the deep emotions it stirred in me, I will embarrassing admit that there were times during the movie that I renamed "The Thing That Wouldn't Die," though I believe there is a film already of that name. :-) This is all subjective. This is an excellent film, but I would recommend that one really be in the mood for a long, historical family saga. I chose the wrong film for the wrong time, but that in no way distracts from this true work of art.