By Rania Richardson
Sunshine
Starring Cillian Murphy
Directed by Danny Boyle
Opens Friday, July 20
Landmark’s Sunshine Cinema
143 East Houston Street near Eldridge
(212-330-8182; landmarktheatres.com)
Courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures
"We’re committed to science. The audacious, breathtaking pull of science,” said director Danny Boyle, in town last month to promote his new outer space thriller “Sunshine,” about a mission to reignite the dying sun. A Q&A with the supercharged British director and MTV’s Kurt Loder followed a special screening for journalists and film students at Tribeca Cinemas. The accompanying reception, featuring fruity “sun-tinis” and a soundtrack from Boyle’s previous films (which include “Trainspotting,” “28 Days Later,” and “Millions”) had the room debating the merits of the new film against his prior work.
Like so many action-packed “popcorn” movies that tend to be released in the summer, “Sunshine” prioritizes big bang sets-and-effects over coherent narrative and plausible dialogue. Visual impact is at the core of this futuristic thriller, though, and it’s no surprise that the director, cast, and crew spent months with renowned scientists to research and prepare for the creation of a striking cosmic environment. A massive space ship carrying a bomb the size of the moon, a hypnotizing sun in an infinite universe, and supernatural (or possibly metaphysical) horrors rendered with the help of CGI, give the film its distinctive look.
On the morning following the screening, at a press junket at the Fox Searchlight offices, Boyle was once again energized and charming. “Europe, actually, has a big problem in terms of the face of science to young people. When you say ‘science’ to kids, they still go ‘Einstein — old man, bald head, grey hair. Who wants to do that?’ ”
The answer may be Brian Cox, a hip scientist and former rock musician who coincidentally resembles “Sunshine” star Cillian Murphy. Boyle said, “He’s young, trendy. He was in a [rock] group [called D:ream]. You’d never think of him in physics as a scientist, but he’s brilliant. We got him to help us and then we also used NASA…for the technical requirements of the ship — what was feasible, what was believable, what wasn’t.”
The emphasis was on scientific fact, not science fiction, but the production strayed occasionally for effect. “Everyone uses the white space suit based on the NASA white suit,” said Boyle, referring to the astronaut gear for Murphy, who plays a scientist on the Icarus II space ship. “We said no, this one is going to be gold — bling gold.”
The arresting suit scintillates in the spectacular photography of Alwin Küchler. Laughing, Boyle said, “There’s a number of cinematographers who use the epithet ‘prince of darkness,’ but he’s the youngest ‘prince of darkness.’ The way he photographs things, there’s a face and then there’s just black. Velvet black. That’s why I wanted him to do the film because it’s about light and darkness, really. Any film about going to the sun is going to be.”
Boyle continued, “He was very keen on using anamorphic, the widescreen format. It’s wonderful for space, for huge landscapes, but it’s a very restrictive format because there’s only one other kind of shot it likes. It likes…” the director dove in with his hands to frame a close-up of this startled, if flattered reporter, “that kind of shot. Like that.” He added, “For a psychological film about space, putting those two things together is fantastic.”
One notable scene has the youthful crew, a stellar ensemble of international actors including Rose Byrne, Chris Evans, Michelle Yeoh, and Cliff Curtis, sitting around a big table eating homemade food with chopsticks. According to Boyle, “NASA said if we ever do long term space travel it won’t be like in ‘2001’ where you have bits of prepackaged food. They’ll let people grow food, possibly even breed fish. You can kill your food, or you can nurture and gather your food, and cook it and eat it and then wash it up afterwards. That cycle is crucial to your sanity.”
Still, there is no getting around the psychological toll from long-term space travel, and the Icarus II crew succumbs to internal torment as they journey to the sun. “What replaces that is this sense of going to meet your maker, if you think of it in religious terms or spiritual terms. It is going to meet the source of all life as we know it, the single most important thing there is. And if you could — and the movie lets you do it — pull up really close to it, what affect would that have upon you?” Boyle hypothetically asked.
At the end of the film “Cillian does see something beyond the rational,” said Boyle, but ultimately “the commitment is to the triumph of science.” Apparently still wrestling with this eternal conflict on a personal level, the 50-year-old director admitted, “I was brought up a very strict Catholic. Very strict. You leave it, but it doesn’t leave you.” He affirmed that always present, on set, was “a kind of battle between science and religion.”
