Sunshine
Paramount Classics | Release Date: June 9, 2000 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 26 Critic Reviews
Positive:
21
Mixed:
4
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
From the outside, Sunshine sounds like the most boring film on Earth. In fact, it's glorious. Read full review
100
Philadelphia InquirerSteven Rea
A powerful film. Read full review
91
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
So filled with riches that it seems a bit unfair to single out Szabo and Fiennes, no matter how outstanding their work. Read full review
90
Washington PostStephen Hunter
It's a brilliant, profound movie, but it's almost no fun at all. Read full review
88
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
An incredibly ambitious film and one of the most highly accomplished of the year. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
While inevitably oversimplified, is never less than engrossing. Read full review
80
L.A. WeeklyF. X. Feeney
What makes Sunshine unique, what rewards a first viewing and lives in the mind long thereafter, is that Szabo has attempted to place Judaism and Christianity on a continuum that is both historically truthful and highly personal. Read full review
80
The New York TimesDana Stevens
Leaves you with a sense of quiet, chastened grace. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldMarta Barber
For filmgoers not interested in history, Sunshine might be a three-hour investment they may not want to undertake. Read full review
75
USA TodayMike Clark
This movie doesn't make you think you are watching art. It's closer to a high-end TV movie with lots of familiar faces. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is a movie of substance and thrilling historical sweep, and its three hours allow Szabo to show the family's destiny forming and shifting under pressure. Read full review
75
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
The sunshine in Sunshine comes from women around him (Fiennes). Read full review
75
New York PostJonathan Foreman
It is often as powerful as it is elegantly shot. Unfortunately, Szabo tends to tell this rather predictable tale in an obvious yet uneven way. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The filmmaking is uninspired and Fiennes inexplicably plays three different characters with exactly the same acting style. Read full review
70
TimeRichard Schickel
Sunshine is a trifle schematic. But it also makes you feel, quite poignantly, the crushing tides of history: heedless, inhuman--and tragic. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderLisa Alspector
Many of the plot points seem belabored because they're introduced in the voice-over, then ploddingly dramatized, then analyzed by the family over meals. Read full review
70
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
It is a superb period re-creation and boasts a formidable international cast.... It is nevertheless absorbing and illuminating in regard to the eras its spans but is also pretty wearying by the time it starts winding down. Read full review
70
Village VoiceAmy Taubin
Despite Sunshine's historical scope and multiplicity of characters, it doesn't shed half as much light on its subject -- identity and anti-Semitism -- as does, for example, Agnieszka Holland's claustrophobic chamber piece "Angry Harvest." Read full review
70
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
That this handsome, three-hour extravaganza coheres at all is a small miracle; that it actually leaves you wanting more is a major one. Read full review
63
San Francisco ExaminerWesley Morris
Szabo doesn't bring the film to its senses until just past the halfway point. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The saga might have worked better as a novel, where we could cast the characters with our imaginations, and keep them straight. Read full review
60
VarietyEddie Cockrell
Well-intentioned but never entirely engaging chronicle. Read full review
52
Mr. ShowbizKevin Maynard
Eventually succumbs to fatal overlength. Read full review
50
Film.comGemma Files
Sunshine's historical reference-heavy narrative walks a fine line between novelistic tragedy and comically overstated melodrama, falling down on the job more than once. Read full review
50
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Ultimately one of those sprawling epics best suited for a rainy day. Read full review
30
Dallas ObserverJean Oppenheimer
That this mess should come from the hand of Istvan Szabo, the brilliant Hungarian director of "Mephisto" and "Colonel Redl," is the real shocker. Read full review
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