SUNSHINE

2000

Had it been two hours in length, this film might have been a masterpiece. But at three hours, it is, at best, a seriously flawed masterpiece. Writer/Director Istvan Szabo, in what may have been an act of autobiographical penance, has attempted to tell the story of 100 years in the life of a family of Hungarian Jews. The patriarch of each generation is played magnificently by Ralph Fiennes. His father-characters march proudly through the regimes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Fascist/Nazi Hungary, and finally Hungary under the Communists, watching history unfold tragically, but doing little or nothing to influence it. That is the family tragedy. The settings and costumes begin sumptuously during the waltz years of the Emperor, and then proceed to become darker and drabber. The acting by Fiennes, William Hurt, Jennifer Ehle and Rosemary Harris(mother and daughter Tony-award nominees this year) is extraordinary, as is the lush Maurice Jarre musical score. The fault is in the writing, the directing, and ultimately the editing. Epics shouldn't be boring, and too much of this one is.

3 Stars

NJB