AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Patience Watson One of those movie experiences that is so good it makes you realize you've been grading everything else on a curve.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

SnoopyStyle 12 year old Emmanuel Sonnenschein left his village in the Austro-Hungarian Empire after his father died in a distillery explosion. Using his father's recipe, he creates a successful brew called "Taste of Sunshine" in Budapest. He has two sons Ignatz (Ralph Fiennes) and Gustave (James Frain). He also adopts his orphan niece Valerie (Jennifer Ehle). Ignatz becomes a prominent judge and marries Valerie. Gustave becomes a communist. The family struggles continue over the years as Ralph Fiennes plays different characters in each generation of Sonnenschein.This is a big ambitious movie. The idea of playing three generations within the same family may be compelling to Fiennes but they may be better off doing a trilogy. This could be also be a good TV series. There is simply too much material to contain in one sitting. Nevertheless Ralph Fiennes does a great job and the sweep of the whole experience is quite compelling.

dromasca Istvan Szabo is probably the finest Hungarian film director ever. I have seen and greatly enjoyed 'Hanussen' and 'Mephisto' which both feature his preferred actor, the fantastic Klaus Maria Brandauer . The latest is nothing less than a masterpiece in my opinion, a strong parable about the relation between dictatorship and art, between power and the artist, and a meditation about the human character and the tearing dilemma of the artist who has to chose between being silent and being silenced. What few people knew at the time the film was released was that in 'Mephisto' Szabo had spoken about his own life and choices.I somehow failed to see until now 'Sunshine' which is a not less ambitious endeavor describing in a big epic film the story of one Jewish Hungarian family which is symbolic for much of the history of the Hungarian Jews in the 20th century.They do not do such films any longer, some may say. 'Sunshine' is a saga spread over three generations of the Sonnenshein / Sors family - a family of Jewish origin whose story is followed since the last two decades of the Austro-Hungarian empire through the First World War, the Communist revolution of 1919, the inter-wars period, the horrors of the Second World War and of the Holocaust, the Communist terror that followed. The tradition of such stories is actually not rooted in Hollywood but rather in the solid novel sagas of writers like Thomas Mann or John Galsworthy. The main theme is the fate of the Jewish family trying to find its identity first in the relatively liberal Austro-Hungarian empire, the tentative to melt its identity by 'assimilation' and conversion, followed by the cruel return to reality during the Holocaust, and the temporary illusion of salvation by adopting the principles of the internationalist Communism.The 16 years that passed since the film was released make the demonstration of the futility of the identity hiding games played by Jews in Europe in general and Hungary in particular look somehow didactic on screen (but not in reality, as recent events show). Istvan Szabo had the bright idea of distributing Ralph Fiennes in the triple role of the three men in the three generations of the Sonnenschein / Sors family. Fiennes is a fine actor and this was one of his best roles, but the real strong and persistent character is the one of Valerie - wife, mother, and grandmother and more than all the survivor and the strong character that represents the moral and tradition compass of the whole family during the succeeding storms of the century. Two actresses - Jennifer Ehle and Rosemary Harris play this role at different ages. They are both wonderful. The strength of the film comes however from the accumulation of facts and the building of the emotion that leads to the final rediscovery of the true identity of the character. As somebody once said: 'Nobody can run away from the star under which they were born'.

Tim Kidner Not to be confused with Danny Boyle's later, only foray into sci-fi, this 'Sunshine' is quite a rare movie; I've not been aware of it ever being on TV.Sunshine, though, features a very capable Ralph Fiennes, portraying three different men, in three different generations of the same Jewish family throughout the turmoils and futility of a warring Europe. This sounds a grand plan and mostly works, it being quite clear when a new era has been started, with Fiennes narrating a cross-over sort of stitching of stories, aided by newsreel to help us place it, time-wise.Probably Hungary's most successful director, István Szabó has used English here, whereas two of his previous films that follow many of the themes explored here that I have seen and own, are in Hungarian: the Oscar winning (Foreign Language) Mephisto and later Colonel Redl. These starred the Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer in brilliant and memorable performances.However, especially when comparing to the earlier Brandauer films, this structure is its slight undoing. However hard Fiennes tries - and he is forced into some quite nasty, humiliating scenes, he is never on the levels attained by Brandauer. This time-frame structure also makes the three hour run-time slacken, the film lacks the urgency and tightness of the Hungarian films and whilst in English, with some familiar faces, it lacks the authenticity, too. However, at least having all the cast speaking the same 'region-free' English dialogue means it is not jarred by a sudden American one, which would spoil it, a bit.However, the story remains an interesting one and the mood and feel never less than authentically and superbly realised, whilst handsome use of locations such as Vienna, Paris, Berlin and Budapest make for a visual feast. I've now just seen the film for the third time.If you're expecting a nice, twee and gentle period drama, leave this one well alone - Szabó has always gone for realism - often graphically. Expect torture, nudity and very strong language - it all fits in and is never gratuitous but this does mean it's not one for Sunday afternoon with grandma and the kids.I would also definitely recommend the two Hungarian Szabó's that I mention - Mephisto is easier to buy and is critically very admired. Colonel Redl I had to buy as a Korean import but that is a good transfer at a good price, if you can find an outlet.

vitachiel Intentions are good and every effort is made to make this a worthy film. Unfortunately, the end result is contemptible. Three major flaws are at the root of this: failed continuity, miscasting and upset footage mixing.The film tells the short but eventful history of Hungary shown through the eyes of three generations of the family Sonnenschein/Sors. Major events are squeezed in less than minutes and important characters are studied only superficially. For instance, when father and son Sors end up in a Nazi concentration camp, the only scene that's included is when the camp leaders kill the father in a horrendous manner while helplessly watched by the son (one of the most intense scenes of the movie). Okay, that was the concentration camp, on to the next scene. No time is taken to delve into the psyche of a traumatized concentration camp survivor, no time to watch things unfold, as if in a great hurry. The same is true for most of the important events taking place in the lives of the protagonists.Adding to the confusion is the fact that the father, the son and the grandson are all played by the same actor, Ralph Fiennes. Undistinguishable, I must say. Adding a mustache doesn't help here: Fiennes remains the same aloof, uninspiring character in all three roles. I am certainly not impressed with his acting skills, although it can always be worse, as evidenced by his zero-talented brother Joseph. Still, only the best of the best actors can manage to remain credible in three different roles in one and the same movie.Another facet which irritated and simultaneously bemused me was the incorporation of present-day shots into old footage, antiquing contemporary sequences as though it would ever fit in with the shaky, unreproducible images of days gone by. And then, still imprisoned in this fake imagery, Fiennes holds a speech. How embarrassing