"... And Yet Come To Naught In The End But Might-Have-Beens"

I stumbled across some images from Sunshine recently – a science fiction film released in early 2007 – and they only served as a fresh reminder of how close to perfection that film landed; right before it stood up, turned around and ran back down to shitsville during its climax. A gorgeous, suspenseful, psychologically-minded piece, reduced to dull, schlock horror. This thing could have been listed among cinema greats like Blade Runner, Solaris and, even, 2001: A Space Odyssey - yes, I’d go that far - if only Danny Boyle could keep himself from turning gold into nonsense. (Sorry, Danny boy, but your only full masterpiece so far is Trainspotting.)





You have a cast that includes Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Rose Byrne and Chris Evans (and I’ll grant that he’s usually dud ammunition in an argument like this but he’s a live round in this case), you have a story, which, despite slight scientific creative license, is a solid space-drama with tense character dynamics and exciting plot devices and you have a cinematographer - Alwin Küchler - who’s managed to make this look like the most visually stunning film that you’ve seen in the last few years. How do you go wrong with these ingredients? (Brief note: Alwin Küchler was also cinematographer for Code 46, another elegantly good-looking and almost sublime film. Speaking of that, Code 46 was directed by Michael Winterbottom who also directed 9 Songs - yet another potentially perfect piece that got screwed by someone not doing their work properly. This is kind of like a six-degrees-of-separation of failure!)

Following closely on the heels of the Coen Brothers’ No Country For Old Men, there’s another Cormac McCarthy novel adaptation coming out soon, called The Road and I'm really looking forward to this. It’s being directed by John Hillcoat, who directed The Proposition, so I’m hopeful that the end result is going to be something really impressive. At least, being an adaptation, John has a set tone and single genre to follow here; unlike Danny Boyle who can’t decide what the fuck he’s doing. If I see the DVD for Sunshine on sale really cheaply, I might pick it up just to watch the first three quarters and then stop before it becomes “Boo! Haunted House” but I won’t hold my breath. Seriously, fuck you, Danny, that film was almost perfect.