Movie Review: 'Sunrise'

Sunrise (2024)

Directed by Andrew Baird

Written by Ronan Blaney

Starring Guy Pearce, Alex Pettyfer, Crystal Yu

Release Date January 19th, 2024

Published January 18th, 2024

You know that modern trend of movie musicals that don't want you to know that they are musicals? You know? Wonka, Mean Girls, other good example, movies that downplay the fact that they are centered on characters breaking into song? Sunrise is that as a Vampire movie. Sunrise does little to communicate the fact that it is a vampire movie. Even while watching Sunrise you have to work hard to determine that what you are watching is a vampire movie. The vampire in question walks around in daylight, though its set in the Pacific Northwest so that could just be a function of lack of sun, but truly few of the vampire movie tropes are visible in Sunrise, engendering a deep and abiding confusion over what this movie is supposed to be.

Sunrise stars Guy Pearce as Reynolds, a bully and a tyrant, ruling over a pacific northwest town with an iron fist. With his mother, Ma Reynolds (Olwen Fouere) imperiously at his side, Reynolds uses intimidation and fear to get what he wants and what he wants is the property of a recently arrived Asian family. Yan Loi (Crystal Yu) has survived seeing her brother murdered and is now facing threats to her own life and the life of her son Edward (William Gao), as she works to maintain her land. It's at this point that an unlikely stranger enters her life.

Alex Pettyfer co-stars in Sunrise as Fallon, a former cop who was forced to watch as Reynolds' thugs murdered his wife. Fallon himself was also left for dead but something saved his life. For the past several years he's stalked the forest living off the land and perhaps plotting revenge. When he's found on the land owned by Yan Loi he's in bad shape and is nursed back to health. In secret, Fallon asks Edward to get him blood to drink. This begins to restore Fallon's strength and as he comes back to health, he begins to look out for the Loi family, preparing for a showdown with Reynolds.

It's more coherent in my retelling here than it is in the actual movie, Sunrise. For one thing, my description doesn't account for the fact that Pettyfer, though credited as the co-lead of the movie alongside Guy Pearce, spends most of the movie in a bed, in darkness, occasionally rising to drink blood. Pettyfer already isn't the most expressive actor on the planet. Leaving him to mumble a few words while lying down in a dark room is not exactly the best use of his talents. Pettyfer is a handsome dude whose best features, cheekbones and abs, are visual.

I was far too far into Sunrise before I realized that Pettyfer's character, Fallon is a vampire. The description that the movie gives of his character is that of an ancient evil that lived in the forest, feasting on people who were sacrificed to appease him. That's not a typical vampire trope. It's not difficult to make that part of a vampire legend, I guess, but it's not something that is going to automatically signal that the character is a vampire, especially when he's walking around during the day.

Fallon's vampire powers are nebulous and inconsistent at best, nonexistent at worst. He doesn't appear to have strength or speed and, thanks to Pettyfer's lazy incomprehensible performance, it's hard to even know what is motivating him. You can assume it's revenge or a desire to protect the innocent but you won't know it from Pettyfer's blank slate, low energy performance.

Maybe Pettyfer's blank slate performance can explain the way that director Andrew Baird uses flashbacks. Sunrise flashes back to the kidnapping and murder of Fallon's wife so often that it appears to be trying to make up for all that Pettyfer is failing to convey in his performance. Anytime Fallon closes his eyes he flashes back to seeing his wife roped to a tree and being killed, Reynolds' thugs using her as a sacrifice to whatever evil entity that will also go on to save Fallon and turn him into the new evil of the forest? Maybe? Perhaps? Seemingly?

That's the thing about Sunrise, none of it makes much sense. The convoluted narrative is confounding. Pettyfer's blank performance is unhelpful and Guy Pearce is only here to chew the scenery in big broad monologues and blustery bullying physicality. Pearce is a terrific actor so some of his big, broad performance is effective, he's the best part of this otherwise execrable movie. Pearce has become an old pro though sadly if he keeps being cast in movies like Sunrise, that old pro status will forever be unknown to most audiences. Sunrise is beneath his talent.

Just one final note for future filmmakers: choose your title with great care. The makers of Sunrise really needed a different title for their film. For one thing, the sun never seems to rise in Sunrise, it's murky and dark throughout. I believe Fallon's wife died at sunrise, maybe? Perhaps? It's unclear. The reason they needed a different title is because German master F.W Murnau already made the definitive masterpiece titled Sunrise in 1927. Any movie that takes the name of an existing masterpiece is doomed to pale in comparison. Then again, Sunrise 2024 appears to have been doomed from conception.

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