Customer Reviews

Sunday [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - France ]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is masterful and precious storytelling about two middle-aged people: a has-been actress and a homeless man whom she's bumped into on the street and mistaken for a movie director. Intrigued, hungry, and lonely, he assumes this director's identity and they spend the day together, deceiving each other in the most loving and heroic ways. This movie must be watched over and over again, listened to carefully, savored. The poetic honesty of the two lovers and the plight of the homeless men in the shelter where the man lives are all interwoven and depicted so fleetingly, so powerfully, that you'll want to stop the tape and rewind it in several places just to get the full impact of the characters and how they influence each other's destinies. The scuzzy realism of the homeless shelter is juxtaposed beautifully with the lyrical speeches of the lovers as they woo each other with their individual stories about life and disappointment and lost youth. But, they haven't lost hope, and that's why I adore this film. If you want to see a small, beautifully crafted film acted by two world-class Shakespearean-trained British actors in the lead roles, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

A good one for those of you looking for an intriguing psychological plot set in a realistic style. Throw in a pinch of the unusual, a generous dose of pathos, a splash of sex, and ride along the edge of this winner.

This film is marvelous! A triumph in its depiction of loneliness and despair. If you're tired of car crashes and stupid/grossed out comedies, see this film. It is extremely powerful.

The movie "SUNDAY." An amazing piece of recognition. Recognition of need and warmth counterpoised against the routine pretense of recognition which accompanied one's life in the past.

The woman has lived a long time with failure, with the illusion of promise which the future might bring. A new man, renewal of a career, that relationship which defies definition, but which can weave a magical web of mystery around the usual day to day events of life. The woman's question: I am still beautiful, I can act and speak and make audiences cry. Why am I left behind then, with my image worshipped still, at an altar which does not contain me?

The man has not lived so long with failure, is still enduring the shock of it, in jagged shots of vision-as a camera, flashing past sights no one ever wanted to see; persistent glimpses which go in and out of focus as in a dream, a nightmare-where eyeglasses produce a truth which eyes do not wish to see. His escape from truth, he can remove the eyeglasses and see nothing. Life has become a pile-up of trash, in rain spattered streets still blotched with late winter's snow. In spite of looking, your eyes refuse to grasp it, to integrate scene after scene with reason or meaning.

I watch the screen in amazement. I wonder how a story will emerge from the bad weather, bad views, bad tasting dark and light which tell the story of a fractured and blighted society. The society which we don't see or hear or care to see. Yet this bitter, broken place contains the music and the vital energy of all races, all nationalities. This energy, though misdirected at times, can still break through the clutter to beauty, unbelievably.

The premier extra on this DVD is the interview that the film's director, Jonathan Nossiter, conducts with one of the great American directors, Arthur Penn, called "Searching for Arthur". Nossiter himself is a strange combination of self-conscious and intellectually smug, but when Penn is allowed to speak, it's fascinating.

The film itself, Sunday, in spite of the director's personality that oozes through during the interview with Penn, is actually very good. David Suchet plays Oliver, a middle class IBM manager who's been thrown out of his job, now living in a shelter. By chance, he meets Madeleine, a British actress living in New York, whose marriage is crumbling and who appears to be having a hard time finding work. The two of them connect by a mutual understanding of their sorrowful plights using the clever mechanism of telling each other "made up" stories that reflect their real thoughts and feelings about each other. This is compounded by Madeleine's initially mistaking Oliver for a film director, Matthew Delacorta, and then continuing through with this charade, even though she knows it's not true.

One of the plot devices that gives this film a tremendous boost is the intercutting between scenes of Oliver and Madeleine together with scenese depicting life in the homeless shelter where Oliver has come to stay. The men in the shelter--one of whom is played by an actual homeless man, Jimmy Broadway, with a great theatrical presence--are by turns vindictive, lost, petty, and hopeful. Jared Harris in particular is excellent as Ray, one of the homeless men.

Nossiter does not let the viewer off easy with a stereotypical development of the relationship between Oliver and Madeleine. This is an emotionally complex pairing, a coupling in which each person knows each other's needs for the other, knows how desperate both of them are, and at the same time, knows there is tenderness lurking in there somewhere--it's just a matter of teasing it out.

The film is shot through with great flashes of lyricism and visual panache, and was the winner of Un Certain Regard at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. It's easy to see why; this is a unique work of cinema that shows a real talent who has both book smarts and street smarts and a heart as well.

Recommended.

Originality, superb writing, good direction, and acting leads David Suchet and Lisa Harrow are the reasons this very dissatisfying film earns five stars. Under this critic's system, when everything is excellent, a movie could end in the middle, with all the loose ends left untied, and still achieve the highest rating. This is just about the case here. Many loose ends are left dangling at the end. Many questions are left unanswered. But this is by design. It forces the viewer to ponder and analyze the film for hours and perhaps days after watching. Personally I would have preferred an ending where the questions are answered, but the ending fits in with the entire story which is, let's face it, a bit trippy. The entire story seems inspired or at least reminiscent of psychedelic mushrooms, though it's not as far out there as say, "Mulholland Drive" which I found a bit too schizo, not to mention ugly. This movie is thankfully nonviolent and more thoughtful, with ideas thrown out in comprehensible language, as opposed to "Mulholland Drive" which was downright incoherent or at any rate, impenetrably cryptic.

I became an admirer of the versatile David Suchet after watching his performance as Poirot in the excellent detective series of the same name, and as the comic villain in Anthony Trollope's "The Way We Live Now". The reason I tried this movie is simply because he was in it. But Lisa Harrow is by no means inferior, and holds up her end admirably. If only Hollywood would take a long overdue clue, and learn to cast talented older actors more often, instead of pretty faces with empty heads like Brad Pitt and Nicole Kidman, maybe people would come back to the cinema.

I would even watch this again. The film requires all one's faculties. A zero beer movie. Brew a cup of coffee.

Rather than detail the specifics of plot and character (other reviewers have done this quite well), I'd like to express my gratitude to director Jonathan Nossiter and his superb leads, David Suchet and Lisa Harrow, for a film that shows us the small gifts that may come to every life--even the lives of those whose main achievements are that they have survived. Surrounded on all sides by the brainless offerings of popular culture, this beautifully shot and acted small film is a revelation.

I saw myself in this film of probable mistaken identity.
It is the story of a man who loses everything and ends up in a New York homeless shelter with people who are very petty and is basically an outsider. So on a "Sunday" he takes a walk and runs into a women who mistakes him for a film director and they spend the day together. I liked this film as it is a small world film ( Small world films are cinema of characters who live lives of small events;the lost of a job,making a change,finding love, getting through a day. films to see...Dogfight,Palookaville,A Thousand Clowns,the Goodbye People,Death of a salesman) As note this cinema has a carnal scene between Madeleine and Oliver; it happens and may shock some people that people 40 and over actually fornicate. It is not very romantic or a love scene out of a movie like Moll Flanders,Lady Chatterley's Lover or Tom Jones. So spend "Sunday" with these characters and visit the small world

Sunday, winner Sundance Grand Prize, was a darling of the critics when it first came out, but the film will probably bore most viewers, as it really doesn't have that much entertainment value. Made for, and probably appreciated by about five people, the story follows a day in the life of two dissimilar people who find each other one Sunday. The movie centers on a case of mistaken identity, but it's oblique, indirect, and somewhat circuitous flavor make it hard to like. Infused with a gritty and coarse urban realism, the characters in Sunday live out their lives under a layer of loss, regret, and hopelessness. They shed their identities and then try to remake them, enticing each other with strange mind games that progressively deepen until the viewer doesn't know who's who, let alone whether it's really Sunday or not.

This grim movie begins in a seedy, squalid homeless shelter in Queens, New York. Matthew (David Suchet) has fallen on hard times, and is forced to live permanently in the refuge. He wakes one lonely Sunday morning, then uncomfortably performs his toilet and has breakfast, while steadfastly ignoring the men who argue and bicker around him. Times are undeniably tough, and these men, living rock bottom, are forced to scratch out a meager existence. Then Matthew takes to the snowy wet streets where he encounters Madeleine, (Lisa Harrow), an Englishwoman, who takes him for the well-known director Matthew Delacorta, whom she once met in London and whom she's worked with. Matthew does nothing much to dissuade her.

Madeleine invites him to a café where they talk, and then he accompanies her home for a drink where they tell each other stories in the third person. Soon a mild flirtation begins and they end up having sex. Neither of them has been particularly honest with each other. Madeleine wants Matthew to cast her in a good role, while Matthew just wants the company of an attractive woman who is nice to him. Soon it's revealed that both are steeped in a life of regret: Madeline can't understand why she stays in New York, and she feels as though life is gradually passing her by. Matthew was once a manager with IBM, and a family man, who has unexplainably, lost it all.

Their lives are mired in mysterious self-delusion. Nervous Madeleine reveals herself to be tough and self-contained. Shy and nerdy Matthew turns out to be a brick wall of control and self-knowledge. Things become even more complicated when Madeleine's ex-husband (Larry Pine) arrives on the scene and demands to know Matthew's real identity. Director Jonathan Nossiter embeds the story with endless scenes of street squalor and grime. Matthew's homeless friends appear at intervals commenting on the relationship, partaking in meaningless dialogue with each other, and rustling through a garbage dump. One of them even sings opera in the subway.

Both Suchet and Harrow are extremely good, managing to capture the tragic and heart- rendering nuances of their characters. And the movie is almost Pinteresque in form and tone. But the problem is that this sad and depressing film just isn't that interesting, and it ultimately has surprisingly little to say. Is the message that jobs in America are hard to find, and that even professional middle managers can lose it all? At one stage Madeline comments: "You can really fall a long way in this country," and Matthew replies: "No work, no hope for work, like every day's Sunday." Or is the film arguing that delusion amongst people is de rigor and that indulging in fantasy is the only way to survive in such a harsh, uncompromising world? Sunday's indirect plot hints at some unidentified intellectual reward, but this is only if you can figure out its essential message. Mike Leonard April 05.

I find it interesting this film did so well at Sundance. Because of that fact, and because of who was in it, I just expected more. Had I seen this movie first, I would never have ordered it. I didn't realize this was from an American film maker. I ordered this film because of David Suchet and Lisa Harrow. I have seen them both in BBC productions and am a great fan. Most of my DVD collection is indeed from the BBC, and my expectations were erroneously along those lines.

The film itself was unique. It was well acted. For myself, however, I would rather have just rented it and seen it once. It is definitely not something I will watch again, or at least not often. I don't mean to say I hated this film, I did not. I am not sorry I saw it, but I am sorry I bought it. If I had a way of selling mine back, I would do so immediately.

The opening scene was full of profanity and characters in situations that looked like they were more from my husband's god-awful movie collection than my own. Additionally, I found the special feature very boring and poorly done.

With the language and the nudity, I do not know why this movie carried an "unrated" rating and not an "R". I'm not a prude by any means, but I at least like the information so I can make a choice about what I watch. It's my own fault for not researching it more. If any of you are not sure... be advised.