You never know what you've got until it's gone

Rating: 9/10 (23 September 2012)

Refreshingly original! Charlie Kaufman has a knack of coming up with these outright creative and never-thought-before stories. Sunshine is like an Odyssey into a lover's mind who has decided to erase the memories of his failed affair, but during this procedure, he realizes that beyond the fights, there are some memories that he actually cherishes.
This could have been another run-of-the-mill love story, but Charlie combined it with this creativity and produced a bizarre piece of cinema. One thing I really love about Charlie kaufman is that he has the ability to create a different dream world through his screenplay. He did this by creating the 7 1/2 floor in "Being John malkovich" and he did it again by taking us inside Jim's brain where Kate's memories were being erased one-by-one - Jim's desperateness at losing Kate, shooting scenes in the light of a torch, people/things disappearing one-by-one as they are being erased - astounding, brilliant, riveting! Even the little things like Kate's ever changing hair color leave you to question why is she doing it. Eventually, you get so immersed in Charlie Kaufman's wonderland that you stop asking and just stay in his world - bewildered at what he has created ! He creates a mystique which is so unique that it borders on insanity - one mistake and the whole movie would become pshycotic !
During all this madness, somewhere you realize that this actually is a love story and all that Jim is doing is to save Kate from being erased. They have so many beautiful memories. Its amazing how Charlie Kaufman managed to sequence all the scenes together to bring out such emotions in the viewer.
For me the brilliance of Charlie Kaufman's screenplay is in that one scene when the memory of meeting kate for the first time on the beach is being erased. Jim sat with Kate for 30 seconds, first talking to her as it really happened, then talking to himself as how he felt during that conversation & finally, jim and kate being sad that the memory is being erased and this being the last memory of them together. One scene, 3 emotions, all being felt by the same guy - WoW! I liked Sunshine more than Charlie's other film, "Being John Malkovich". Both are outright creative, but Sunshine scores on the message and the tender feeling it leaves you with. I salute you Charlie Kaufman - you really are a genius!