‘Sunrise’ Review: A Bland Horror Story With A Chilling Atmosphere
Tyler Doupe'
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To be successful, a movie must captivate its audience on some level. When I watched Andrew Baird’s Sunrise, I kept waiting for that to happen. I waited. And waited. But the film never reaches the point of being compelling. A rough screenplay, glacially paced narrative progression, and the lack of any captivating characters make this picture a chore to endure.
The proceedings follow Yan Loi (Crystal Yu) and her two children, Edward (William Gao) and Emily (Riley Chung). They left their homeland for a rural town in the Pacific Northwest and have endured nothing but persecution since their arrival. When an injured drifter called Fallon (Alex Pettyfer) shows up at their home, Yan Loi takes him in. As he convalesces, the family begins to wonder if the man may be a mythical forest demon called The Red Coat.
As I previously mentioned, the film never pulled me in. Some of that likely has to do with the absence of a dynamic protagonist. Deep into the picture’s runtime, I couldn’t conclusively say who the main character was supposed to be. Ronan Blaney’s screenplay splits the focus between numerous characters. The narrative bounces around between Yan Loi and her children, Fallon (in both the past and present), a racist demagog called Reynolds (Guy Pearce), Reynolds’ ailing mother (Olwen Fouéré), a couple of Edward’s classmates, and a few additional tertiary characters that don’t add much to the proceedings.
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Those issues are made worse by the edit. Just as one piece of the story becomes the least bit captivating, the narrative pivots to another character. Had the various storylines been presented in larger blocks of time, the audience may have had a better chance to warm to them.
As a function of the ever-shifting focus and frenetic editing, the characters come across as severely underdeveloped. We learn very little about Yan Loi and her children and aren’t told much more about Fallon. In fact, I don’t think I knew his name until around the one-hour mark.
On the performance side of things, I can safely say that none of the showings are terrible. Guy Pearce is fully committed and even reaches the point of being compelling on occasion. But that cannot be said of the entire cast.
One scene in particular stood out to me as a missed opportunity. When Yan Loi discovers the family dog has been killed, her reaction feels out of step with the horror she is enduring. I know her character is quite familiar with loss. We are made very aware of that. But it’s not about appearing jaded by grief and numb to the pain. It’s that her performance isn’t convincing enough to make the ordeal feel real. She wears a pained expression and makes muffled crying noises but that’s not enough to make her pain palpable to the viewer. And that’s a shame because this is a film where I already felt a disconnect from the characters. So, to deprive us of the chance to relate to one of them on a visceral level seems like a missed opportunity.
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I finally felt a connection to Yan Loi as she recounted losing her mother and the hardships she and her family have endured since coming to the States. Her grief is more believable at that point. But that transpires well into the second act. That’s too late in the game for a primary character to feel accessible for the first time.
Shifting gears a bit, I have to give credit to Baird for effectively establishing a cold and foreboding atmosphere. That pairs well with the thematic elements related to the horrors of being othered. We see bits of that with the way Yan Loi and her family are treated as scourges by the locals. But that piece, like many other aspects, feels a bit underdeveloped.
If I’d felt a stronger connection to the core characters, I may not have come away feeling like that bit was lacking. But it’s tough to fully connect with the messaging when you don’t connect with the characters.
All things considered, I would say that Sunrise isn’t a terrible film. It does some things reasonably well. We get a good showing from Guy Pearce and the atmosphere is effectively rendered. But the narrative is too scattered and I never felt like I could truly relate to any of the leads.
If you’re interested in checking Sunrise out for yourself, you can find the film in theaters and on digital today.
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‘Sunrise'
Summary
The absence of any compelling characters hinders ‘Sunrise’ throughout its brief runtime.
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