Sunshine Movie Review 1999

Sprawling look at four generations of an assimilated Hungarian-Jewish family covers a lot of time at the expense of cohesiveness and character. Title refers to the health tonic that makes the family fortune and is a pun on the family's original name, Sonnenschein. Fiennes turns up in three roles as the family prospers in Budapest by changing their name to avoid the anti-Semitic society--eventually converting to Catholicism. It will not protect them, however, from the Nazi holocaust and the turbulent postwar period that leads to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956.

Distribution

Paramount Home Video, 5555 Melrose Ave., 5555 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038, Phone: (323)956-5000, URL: http://www.paramount.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 180 minutes.
Originally from Canadian, Hungarian.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Judaism, Family Ties, Period Piece: 20th Century, The Holocaust, Postwar, Fencing

Screenplay

Istvan Szabo, Israel Horovitz

Cast

Ralph Fiennes, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, Jennifer Ehle, Molly Parker, Deborah Kara Unger, James Frain, William Hurt, John Neville, Miriam Margolyes, Mark Strong

Cinematography

Lajos Koltai

Director

Istvan Szabo

Music

Maurice Jarre

Awards

Genie 1999: Film.