12 year old Emmanuel Sonnenschein left his village in the Austro-Hungarian Empire after his father died in a distillery explosion. Using his father's recipe, he creates a successful brew called "Taste of Sunshine" in Budapest. He has two sons Ignatz (Ralph Fiennes) and Gustave (James Frain). He also adopts his orphan niece Valerie (Jennifer Ehle). Ignatz becomes a prominent judge and marries Valerie. Gustave becomes a communist. The family struggles continue over the years as Ralph Fiennes plays different characters in each generation of Sonnenschein.

This is a big ambitious movie. The idea of playing three generations within the same family may be compelling to Fiennes but they may be better off doing a trilogy. This could be also be a good TV series. There is simply too much material to contain in one sitting. Nevertheless Ralph Fiennes does a great job and the sweep of the whole experience is quite compelling.

Five generations of a Hungarian Jewish tamily are told through the end of the Austrian/Hungarian empire on up, covering both world wars and of course the Holocaust. Ralph Fiennes is superb (no surprise) in three roles of different generations, and the legendary stage actress Rosemary Harris is once again the matriarch of a family dealing with Nazi horrors.

Fortunately as opposed to the TV mini-series "Holocaust", she is spared that atrocity in this, living a Frank family like existence that is not really dealt with, just mentioned. But her character, adopted by her uncle, marries her cousin (legal we are told even though they are siblings by adoption),and survives her domineering adopted mother and mother-in-law (Miriam Margolyes) to become the matriarch of the family, quite dignified and the epitome of the strength that brings on survival from a wretched situation.

John Neville, as her brother, is reunited with her after the war, and a very touching scene has her being with him, singing calmly right up to the end. This appears to be an international cast playing the dozens of characters throughout the history of this family, telling a story of major changes in Europe that influenced what it would become in the modern age. The Holocaust sequence deals with the torture of an Olympic gold medal fencing champion, and those scenes are very difficult to get through. As the effects of the war, the men become involved in the communist party, and this of course has other serious ramifications.

In watching the film through, you get the sense that this could have easily been either a two-part TV movie or even two very strong theatrical films. It is certainly beautifully filmed and cinematic, but some of the sexuality of the film is rather graphic including the rape of Harris's younger character (played by Jennifer Ehle at this point) and later on some sexual acts that could easily have been eliminated. Still definitely worth seeing for its history and of course the documentation of a basically decent Jewish family that did not deserve to suffer the way it did.

"Sunshine" portrays three generations of the Hungarian-Jewish Sonnenschein family. Specifically, bad things happen to them with every major event (the attempted Communist takeover by Bela Kun, the Nazi invasion, the post-WWII Soviet takeover). Ralph Fiennes plays three generations of men. After watching this movie, you'll probably be very impressed about all of Hungary's various aspects; I certainly was. Every part of the movie is well-done. Fiennes plays all three roles perfectly, and Jennifer Ehle, Rosemary Harris, Rachel Weisz, John Neville, and the other cast members do quite well with their roles. Istvan Szabo directs with the same energy that he brought to "Mephisto" and "Being Julia". Perfect.