Sunlight
Claire Dix’s well-acted Irish drama tackles both drug addiction and assisted dying.
The 2022 Irish film Joyride struck me as one of the worst of the year and for that I largely blamed the screenplay by Ailbhe Keogan. Consequently, I was disheartened to note that she was also the writer of Sunlight which for its director, Claire Dix, marks a major step into handling a feature work with actors (previously she has made documentaries and short films). She does a good job here and obtains very effective performances from her leading players. As for Ailbhe Keogan, I am pleased to say that her work here is a distinct improvement on Joyride but, even so, it is the screenplay which to my mind limits the success of the film.
Whether or not she had the illustrious example of James Joyce in mind, Keogan gives us in Sunlight a story set in Dublin which, but for a brief epilogue, takes place during a single day. The story she has chosen to tell concerns a crisis point in the relationship between Leon (Barry Ward), a former drug addict, and Iver (Liam Carney), an older man who had become his mentor and had enabled him to get over his problems. He had repaid Iver by caring for him when health problems had confined Iver to life in a wheelchair. However, on this particular day, Iver makes it known that he no longer wishes to live. Indeed, he has turned to a doctor friend, Maria (Maureen Beattie), who is willing to do for him what she has done for others: to help him carry out his wish through assisted dying. But when Leon learns of this, he is determined to make Iver think again and to that end gets him outdoors pushing him in his wheelchair for a day’s outing in the city. They visit local stables which have special associations for Iver and they call in at Iver's favourite bar while later Leon, a musician, attempts to set up in his own house a slideshow with music designed as a tribute for Iver's birthday.
The impression given by Sunlight is that it is seeking to be a film which has popular appeal but which will at the same time invite viewers to consider the case for making euthanasia legal. That's not an easy mix. However, Keogan’s screenplay avoids sentimentality and does not shrink from showing what life in a wheelchair has become now that Iver recognises that he is basically in need of twenty-four-hour care. But at the same time Dix ensures that the film’s music track has a liveliness that prevents the piece from feeling too grim and downbeat and this is achieved without ever making the score sound inappropriate. This feeling is enhanced by the energy found in the character of Leon and, if the set-up is a mite contrived, Ward, Carney and Beattie contribute performances that makes us readily accept what is on offer. Further gains include the wide screen colour photography of Narayan Van Maele and the editing by Alec Moore and Tony Cranstoun.
If the screenplay is the weak feature here, that is down to two aspects in particular. One is the failure to get fully to grips with the character of Leon. It becomes apparent that, despite appearing to have put his addiction behind him, he seems to have become as dependent on Iver as Iver is on him. This leads him to persuade Iver into having this day out which in his state of health is decidedly ill-judged and, while Leon genuinely wants to give Iver the will to live, there is a strong sense that he is acting primarily out of his own need to ensure that he does not lose this one friend on whom he relies, this being regardless of how Iver himself feels. The film does seem aware of this and Ward's performance captures Leon's lack of maturity no less than his energetic facade. Even so, the writing seems to stop short of fully delving into Leon's character and the extent to which he remains a man who is undeveloped as an adult. Furthermore, later on there is a sudden switch into making Leon capable of strong actions (this seems inconsistent with how he has previously been seen including an episode which shows him bungling his slideshow in a way that makes him appear totally immature and even childlike). Yet more seriously, early passing references to Iver as ‘The Viking’ (a term linked to an interest in Viking reconstructions which itself calls for more elaboration) are then allowed to grow into something that is pivotal in the film’s climactic scenes. The change of tone here and the sheer improbability of this section of the film make one feel that it belongs to another work altogether. There are many contributions to Sunlight that work well and give pleasure, but when considered as a whole the tale lacks the cohesion that might have yielded a truly satisfactory film.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Barry Ward, Liam Carney, Maureen Beattie, Ericka Roe, Lydia McGuinness, Gus McDonagh, Mark O’Halloran, Sean Stafford, Orén Kinlan, Alex Connolly, Tony Doyle, Adam Hutchinson.
Dir Claire Dix, Pro Roisin Geraghty, Screenplay Ailbhe Keogan, Ph Narayan Van Maele, Pro Des Lauren Kelly, Ed Alex Moore and Tony Cranstoun, Music Matthew Nolan and Stephen Shannon, Costumes Joanne O’Brien.
Screen Ireland/Keeper Pictures/Little Rose Films/Binder Films-Wildcard Distribution.
91 mins. Ireland. 2023. UK Rel: 16 June 2023. Cert. 15.
