Sunset Song (2016)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Achingly lovely on both visual and narrative grounds, Sunset Song adds another small gem to writer-director Terence Davies' filmography.
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Cast
as Chris Guthrie
as John Guthrie
as Ewan Tavendale
as Chae Strachan
as John Brigson
as John Brigson
as Reverend Gibbon
as Uncle Tam
as Jean Guthrie
as Will Guthrie
as Alex Mutch
as Mr. Kinloch
as Inspector
as Long Rob
as Preacher
as Munro
as Lady Passenger
as Mistress Melon
as Auntie Janet
as Galt
as Christine
as Tinker
as Peter Semple
as Mrs. Hemans
as Female Guest
as Dr. Meldrum
as James - the Chauffeur
as McIvor
as Mollie Douglas
as Newborn Guthrie Twin
as Toddler Ewan
as Dod Guthrie
as Alec Guthrie
as First Government Man
as Newborn Guthrie Twin
as Piper
as Second Government Man
as Marget Strachan
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Critic Reviews for Sunset Song
All Critics (108) | Top Critics (26) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (21) | DVD (1)
It blooms with moments of astonishing beauty: a yellow frenzy of springtime trees; a still room where the light slants in the window like a reaching hand; a desolate landscape, impossibly green.
Like Davies' best work, the movie employs classical rigor - perfectly symmetrical, painterly landscapes and interiors - with unexpected postmodern touches.
"Sunset Song" is not without flaws, but it's an art film of uncommon beauty.
It's an absorbing, finely composed, fretful film. But when it's over, there is as much relief for the filmgoer as appreciation for the filmmaker's art.
Davies tries things nobody else would try. Here that means allowing the choral passages - scenes in which individual characters and groups of characters express their feelings in popular ballads or folk songs - plenty of room.
Has its moments of grace, but too often resorts to conventions and a tone of high lugubriousness.
Audience Reviews for Sunset Song
It's visual beauty is offset by the fact that the main character remains a cypher from begging to end.
Super Reviewer
Want to visit Scotland but can't afford a plane ticket? Want to see it from a rural perspective, pre-WWl, but no one's invented a time machine yet? You could do worse than this brief visit with a family living their day-to-day lives. Not a lot of exposition here, but it's all beautifully filmed. It's dull in some places, no doubt like Scotland herself, and you'll long for a chase scene somewhere, anywhere, even if it's only in a supermarket.
Super Reviewer
Sunset Song Quotes
| Chris Guthrie: | There are lovely things in the world, lovely that don't endure, and the lovelier for that. |