Review of "Sunshine"

This movie, directed by Danny Boyle, is a very striking example of story-telling. At times during this movie, I was suddenly made aware that I had been holding my breath and that my heart was beating at thousands of beat a second!! (A bit of an exaggeration here, but you get the idea) When Jess and I went to go see it, all we knew was that it was some kind of a space movie. Even the online summary, which includes something about insanity in the depths of space fails to do this movie any justice at all. I've never written a movie review before, so I hope I can avoid any spoilers as I hate it tremendously these days when reviews and previews of movies seem to give away half of what happens.

Editing is really the name of the game when it comes to just exactly how this movie so viscerally effects its audience. From specific audio cues, or lack thereof, to the musical cues which in this movie are so slight that I sometimes forgot that there was really any background music to speak of. Similar to other great movies of the past, the sound in this movie just becomes another element in the story and soon becomes indistinguishable from it. There are scenes in this movie that may be considered to be barren of much emotion, but when sound is added and edited just right it all of a sudden becomes an amazing experience to behold.

The acting in this movie, while playing second string to the visuals and editing techniques discussed previously, does a great job. Every actor has their own part that they play with very convincing realism. Cillian Murphy is good as the enigmatic and shy physicist but shoulders his responsibilities (essentially saving Earth) with much courage. This is definitely a much different part than his turn as the Scarecrow in "Batman Begins". Chris Evans, known from his work in "Not Another Teen Movie" as well as most recently in "The Fantastic Four" really showed another side as well and proved to me that he isn't just another pretty boy getting roles for his appearance only. Rose Byrne shows her own acting chops, and reminded me of her sometimes creepy role in "Wicker Park".

The visuals, though expertly done with the use of CGI, are never too flashy for the sake of being flashy. Instead, scenes of the vastness of space are interspersed very expertly with other scenes portraying the extremely claustrophobic interiors of the spacecraft. Lacking many of the extremely visceral and gory scenes from Boyle's other well-known movie "28 Days Later", "Sunshine" manages to pull off similar anxiety by the careful use of editing and musical cues. In the end, this movie is well worth seeing.