Sunshine

Last night I watched Sunshine, a movie that you probably haven’t heard of, starring people whose names you most likely don’t know but whose faces you do. I liked it. It is about a bunch of astronauts and scientists on a mission to try to “jump start” the sun, which is dying out and taking life on Earth with it. There was one large weakness with the so called enemy or bad guy, which is typical of movies like this, because while it is easy to create suspense from the unknown in dangerous situations (and what is more unknown and inherently dangerous than space?), it is difficult to do justice to that suspense once everything is known. So the movie failed in that respect. However, it almost doesn’t matter because while that particular story line was somewhat necessary to drive the plot in points, in most respects it seemed more like a subplot. The movie itself, while being a thriller, developed as more of a rumination on Heaven, sanity, sacrifice, and humanity than anything else. The loneliness and confinement of being on a ship for so long; the mental stress of literally and figuratively setting your sights on the sun, all served to put the main focus of this film on the emotional journey that the astronauts were taking, as well as their various coping strategies (or failures). This was definitely aided by the score, which was very contemplative in several key areas, turning significant scenes into introspective moments instead of explosive ones. If you see this film, just ignore the “bad guy” (he’s only there for a short time, but it would have improved the entire movie if he had been even less of a presence), and instead focus on the journey taken by the main characters, as they struggle to balance saving the world with saving themselves.