Capa/Cassie/Mace Triangle??

[cougarlady]

I know that Sunshine was released several years ago, but I had never heard of it until I began researching Cillian's films. I don't know if most of you saw it when it was in theaters, or like me, you just viewed it on DVD fairly recently.

Apparently there are back stories available for each of the characters, which I for one wish had been disclosed a bit more in the film. I thought the character development left a great deal to be desired, especially the relationship between Capa and Cassie.

The back stories divulge the fact that Cassie became pregnant weeks before the mission launch, and that she chose to terminate the pregnancy in order to continue with the mission. Only Searle (the psychiatrist) knew about it and helped her cover the incident by using older blood and urine tests during routine medical exams. The father of the child was not named, but you get the distinct impression that he might have been Mace, which would help explain the hostility that he feels toward Capa. It also helps explain why she becomes so emotional when asked to vote to kill a fellow crew member. Perhaps Cassie ended the relationship with Mace in order to pursue one with Capa? And what was the status of that relationship -- unrequited or long over, at least for Capa?

I personally found those mere hints at relationships a little exasperating. The film makers later claimed that those relationships don't work in space movies, but please! Are we supposed to believe that these young people are just happily celibate for 16 months or more, or that they had no relationships between them as elite colleagues? I enjoyed this film a great deal, but I thought it had much more potential.

Anyway, I don't know if more details are available in this little novel or not, but the original Alex Garland novel/screenplay is available on Amazon if you ever care to delve a little deeper into this story. Most reviewers gave it high marks:

www.amazon.com/Sunshine-Alex-Garland/dp/057123397X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323794654&sr=8-1

[28days]

This is not to say I didn't enjoy this film (I did, immensely) but I did find that there was a distinct lack of character development. The film and it's overall conclusion would've been enhanced if we were given opportunity to bond with the characters on a deeper level. We knew nothing about them other than that they were on this mission. I think there were brief mentions to wives, children, but nothing more than passing comments. We knew that Capa had a sister because he sent a message to her, knew he had parents because he hoped they were proud of him, but what of the others? What are they leaving behind? What are these brave men and women giving up in order to save mankind? We don't know because we're not told. How are we to care about their sacrifice when we don't know what it is exactly they're giving up?

We're meant to buy into the hostility between Mace and Capa but we don't know what that's about. If we knew where it was coming from it'd make more sense and the conclusion to their story would have more of an impact. We never find out. It's an unanswered question. Is it resentment because Capa is not 'one of them'? Or, is there more to it than that? Again, we're never told, but it seems that something has happened between them and we're never 'let in' on that secret. It's never accessible to us, therefore their hostility doesn't seem accessible either. The actors do their best to put across something layered but it's difficult when they're given so little detail to work with.

The Captain, whose name I can't even give you. Kaneda, is it? Barely knew him. Barely batted an eyelid about his character. What happened with Searle? I found it difficult to really feel any degree of emotion, because I didn't 'know' him. I didn't feel I 'knew' any of them.

An example in a similar vein (but so much less well done) would be The Day After Tomorrow. The whole film was the storm. The biggest 'star' was the special effects. How can we be affected by the 'human' side of the story if we're not given enough of a character to identify with and/or care about?

So, yes, a backstory, a deeper character development, that would've turned a good film into an excellent film.

Needless to say, though, Cillian said an awful lot with his eyes in this one to me. Capa was three dimensional, even if few of the others were. Wouldn't have hurt to know a bit more about him though. All of them, in fact.

[wikkleshamrocks]

I agree 28Days! Definitely, I love the film to bits but it's so true what you say. The most emotion I saw was Cassie's soft spot for Capa and Corazon caring for her plants and veggies, she loved her garden as if it was her child. Any emotional/mental doings were about the sun and how it affected them, like it hypnotized them or something which you could imagine would happen in a real situation but yes, we needed a bit more obvious back story.

[28days]

There were little glimpses of humanity in them, the nuances of 'people' - just not enough of it, IMHO. If we're to believe they're heroes and 'mourn' their passing and their sacrifice then I feel there needed to be more time and dialogue dedicated to developing them as people we would actually 'miss'.

Got to say, he's never looked more beautiful to me than in this film. Unearthly beauty, which seems fitting.

[cougarlady]

I agree wikkle and 28 days, the actors DO try to convey the motivations of their characters, but the story is squarely focused on the technology of the mission. Even if the script writer imbued the characters with human foibles and emotions, the director just chose to depict largely bleak and sterile interactions between them. Yes, they are supposed to be leading scientists and probably very dispassionate, but they are also human beings.

I remember reading once that Danny Boyle described himself as "not very emotional," and said he found it difficult to convey emotion in his films. I also remember him saying that most actors will try to squirm out of the sex scenes if they can, lol. So I suspect that the actors themselves may have had something to do with the impersonal tone of the film.

BTW, can you imagine being one of the two co-stars who are supposed to film that type of scene, only to hear your other co-star try to make a case for eliminating the scene? I mean, what do you do...protest vociferously??? You probably go along with it so as not to seem too eager about it,, lol.

[28days]

I thought it was a great film on some level, like I said. I just feel that in a film where we're meant to be sad about people sacrificing themselves for the good of mankind, we should be encouraged to actually identify with them, to care about them. It's hard to care about someone when you barely remember their name and have no clue what it is they are sacrificing.

We were offered nothing that made them real and three dimensional, no back story, no history. It seems that there was back story and history in the original script which would've tied up a lot of loose ends. Sometimes a director's cut is so much more imformative than the theatrical cut. In effect, with these spacecraft people, we were offered a freeze frame of a person, their present without their their past, so how are we to care for their future with any degree of true emotional involvement? It's hard to see the human being behind the scientist when you're offered nothing to show them or depict them as a layered creature.

Putting it another way, when the 'star of the show' is a stellar bomb then that's not a film that people will invest in emotionally the way that they would if the film was about the people who are delivering the stellar bomb. If that makes sense.

I thought the film was great. The score was wonderful and Cillian was utterly beautiful. I sympathised with Capa because he seemed to get a bit more focus. It's just that I feel it would've gone from good to brilliant film had we been offered more. Just the way I feel. ;D

[Cait]

I absolutely adore Sunshine, and Capa. He's one of my favourite characters that Cillian has played, but 28Days you're absolutely right. I think that Sunshine was a great film, but I really would have liked to know more about the characters, so that we could understand and identify with them. At the same time, though, I really admired them for their dedication to the mission. We did get a few glimpses of emotion from Cassie, and also the tension between Mace and Capa, which at least showed that they could sometimes lose control, but I was definitely left wanting to know the reasons behind it.

Perhaps Danny Boyle left it out intentionally. Maybe he figured those things were insignificant for this film, because all that matters is that the Earth is saved. I do wish he had have at least added a love scene between Cassie and Capa. Nothing too major, just something. Oh well, I still love the film for what it is, but I may read more into the back story of the characters!

[28days]

Just the odd line of dialogue would've solved it. Something, to give us some insight.

I'm sure there's an abundance of 'fan fiction', as they call it, which fills in the blanks, though. I know I wanted more. Something deeper. Characters who were more defined.

[cougarlady]

My question is, if screenwriter Alex Garland went to the trouble to give each character a back story, and the actors went to the trouble of learning it and trying to convey it, why wouldn't the director let US as the AUDIENCE in on it?? It's almost as if it was a big secret that we were supposed to ferret out.

I can't help but feel that perhaps target demographics played a part here as well. I think they tried to direct this to a young male audience and it backfired.