Reynolds (Guy Pearce) can’t tolerate outsiders in his community. The solution? Intimidation or just straight up murder. This is how Sunrise more or less begins, with Reynolds demanding that Mr. Loi (Chike Chan) sign away his property. The man disagrees and ends up dead, leaving his family to struggle on their own in a community that does not want them. Beyond all that is the legend of the red coat, the vampiric figure that lives in the forest and feeds on the sacrifices offered by the community.
When it comes to villainy, Pearce always delivers. He’s chewing scenery and delivering impassioned speeches about what it means to live in America. His character Reynolds is a bigot and a bully, yet also kind of pathetic with all the nonsense he spouts. It’s a memorable performance in a long and dreary movie. It also feels ironic that the racist is the one character who has the most character depth in this film. Even his relationship with his mother is better developed than other relationships in the film, to the point where we can sense the deep love and care between them.
We’re not given much about the Loi family beyond their outsider status. Yan Loi (Crystal Yu) is a mother trying to do her best now that her husband’s disappeared – she doesn’t want to believe he’s dead. Yu does her best with the part, but there’s only so much she can stretch a character that isn’t really given much to do besides be the victim to Reynolds’ racist ways.
I love William Gao in Heartstopper, but his character’s look and aesthetic feels too clean for the kind of setting we’re in. Everyone looks like they haven’t bathed in ages, and Edward (Gao) constantly looks fresh as a daisy. There’s a brief moment of him staring at a girl on a bus, but then we aren’t given anything else on his character and who he is.
The Loi family then discover an intruder on their property. They generously house Fallon (Alex Pettyfer) and nurse him back to health, where we discover that he’s a vampire. How do we know? Well, he quite literally asks for blood. The reveal could have been handled better, even Twilight had some tension before Edward confirmed that he’s a vampire to Bella.
Fallon barely speaks, and spends most of the film brooding, with his revenge being the only thing that defines him. We get snippets of his past through bleary flashbacks, though at times it’s difficult to discern if we’re in the past or present since both are lit the same way.
There’s a bunch of interesting ideas that flow through the film, but they never coalesce in an interesting way. It almost feels like the film’s run out of ideas, and is meandering its way till the inevitable ending. The film has good use of atmosphere, and I do like the way it’s lit at times. But when all this is just filler and not doing anything for the story – since the story is bare bones – then it doesn’t mean much.
Review screener provided.
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