[8]

Before winning the Oscar for directing Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle teamed with The Beach author Alex Garland (Annihilation, Ex Machina) to give us this underseen and under-appreciated sci-fi thriller. As the Earth’s sun dies and sends humanity into an eternal winter, a team of astronauts are sent to rejuvenate the sun with a nuclear payload. Anything can and does go wrong during the mission, forcing the crew into some of the toughest life-and-death decisions one can imagine. Things get especially dire when a deranged religious zealot sneaks aboard their vessel to sabotage the mission and murder the crew.

Boyle gives a radiant visual style to Sunshine and ratchets up the tension nicely in a scenario where the stakes couldn’t be any higher. The cast features several strong and notable performers, including Cillian Murphy (28 Days Later, Oppenheimer) and Chris Evans (Captain America) in leading roles, with Rose Byrne (Insidious) and Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) making the most of supporting roles. Cinematographer Alwin Kuchler takes full advantage of the film’s solar backdrop. Despite the dire storyline, Kuchler washes the movie in vibrant color and light, distinguishing it from the darker, grittier feeling of prior sci-fi classics like Alien. It almost feels like you’re watching the film from inside a prism. The distinct visual style is complemented by some bold, somewhat experimental film editing and an evocative score by John Murphy and Underworld.

Garland and Boyle seem to be drawing parallels between God and ‘light’, insinuating that fanatics can be born from obsession with either. It may be a leap for some viewers, but I appreciate the nuance — as well as Boyle’s decision to obscure the enemy character (Mark Strong), nude and heavily burned, behind lens flares, blurred photography, and other in-camera effects. It’s as though the sun’s ‘light’ has corrupted him so profoundly, that it affects our ability to see him clearly.

This is a rare instance in which I feel a film is too short. The pacing feels hurried at times, and more time could have been spent building character dynamics among the astronauts. But Sunshine is otherwise a beautifully made, well cast, and exciting film from a writer and a director who would go on to make several more remarkable films in the ensuing years.

With Cliff Curtis, Benedict Wong, Hiroyuki Sanada, and Troy Garity.