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Sunshine
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Starring: |
Ralph
Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle, Deborah Kara
Unger, Molly Parker, James Frain, John Neville, Miriam Margolyes, and
William Hurt |
| Director: |
István
Szabó |
| MPAA rating: |
R |
| Genre: |
Drama
- Romance - Family Epic |
| Studio: |
Paramount
Classics
(Paramount Home Video) |
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Movie: B+ |
Video: B- |
Audio: B+ |
Extras: D |
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Summary: "Sunshine" is a three-hour movie
that spans four generations of a Jewish-Hungarian family in the late 19th to
early 20th century. This family epic takes us through their rise to
fortune, their successful sons' careers in law, medicine, and politics,
their hardships and losses during the Nazi labor camp period, and their
quest for revenge during the political revolution that followed the Nazi's
defeat. If you're into multi-generation family epics, don't miss this
absorbing and
emotionally sweeping epic from director István Szabó.
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The Story
"Sunshine" is a family epic, spanning four
generations of the Sonnenschein (Hungarian for "Sunshine")
family. Great-grandfather Sonnenschein made the family's fortunes in
bottling the cure-all spirit called "A Taste of Sunshine" and had
hoped that his family would continue the family-run business.
However, each of his sons and their sons had different aspirations that
somehow touched on politics which eventually swept through Hungary in turmoil
during much of
the early 20th century. The sons quickly rose in their respective
careers, but in order to advance, they have to leave behind their Jewish
heritage and change their last name to "Sors". And in their
quest for success, they believe in false dreams and ideals which eventually
becomes their demise. Rather than try to summarize more of the story,
I leave it for you to experience.
The film smartly incorporates real-world historical
footage, which firmly implants the story in its early 20th century setting
in Hungary. The performances are generally very good in this sweeping
drama. Ralph Fiennes stars as three characters in this family epic:
Ignatz the grandfather, Adam the father, and Ivan the son, from whom the
story is narrated. He gives powerful performances in all three
roles. Jennifer Ehle is wonderful in her portrayal of the free-spirited
Valerie. Jennifer's real-life mother, Rosemary Harris, plays Valerie during the character's senior
years. I can't help but notice how closely Jennifer Ehle resembles Meryl Streep:
her face, her body, her stature, her facial expressions, and her mannerism. The
resemblance is uncanny.
The Extras
There are no bonus materials to be had on this DVD.
Video & Audio
The image quality of this anamorphic
widescreen DVD is generally good, but there were some scenes that were
marred with MPEG-2 encoding artifacts. (Artifacts that I've have seen
since some of the earlier DVDs encoded before 2000.) Otherwise, the colors are accurate and
saturated, with good shadow detail. The Dolby
Digital 5.1 soundtrack is well balanced and effective, though the
surround channels were not aggressively used. The dialog
is crystal clear.
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Visit the Paramount
Home Video web site.
Did you find this DVD movie review helpful? Let us
know your thoughts, send an e-mail to us at Feedback@TimeForDVD.com.
Associated equipment used in evaluation: Sony
DVP-S7700 reference DVD player, Sony
KP-61V45 61" rear projection TV (4:3 screen aspect ratio), Sony ES
STR-V444ES A/V receiver, NHT 2.1 as left/right main speakers, NHT 1.1C center channel speaker, NHT
SuperZero as surround speakers, Monster Cable M-series S-Video cable MSV-500, Monster
Cable Interlink LightSpeed 100 (Toslink) optical cable, Monster Cable XP speaker
wires, and Sony MDR-V600 studio monitor headphones. Our home theater equipment was calibrated
with the Video
Essentials DVD.
Be sure to check out our Top 10 DVDs of the year
2001 and our list of this year's Oscar winners on DVD.
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