I wanted to like Sunday, with all my heart. For whatever reason, New Zealand’s hardly given the romance genre a serious crack, plus we haven’t seen a feature this year directed by a woman. So when this modest, self-funded film caught my eyes, I was instantly on its side. Unfortunately, the film I saw made little impression on me…
The film follows one day in the lives of Charlie and Eve, a former couple now separated but with a child on the way. In this brief 24 hours, they must decide whether or not they have a shot at a relationship again. Set in Christchurch one year after the devastating earthquake, Sunday is ultimately about the possibility for reconstruction versus the desire to evacuate for good. For Charlie, staying in Australia is an easier and more comforting option, but to start a family with Eve requires considerable effort and sacrifice. His life is with his job in Oz; his heart is with Eve in Christchurch. He wants both. That’s not possible.
Wisely, first-time feature director Michelle Joy Lloyd doesn’t rub the Christchurch metaphor in our faces, allowing the dilapidated backgrounds speak for themselves. Some places are in ruins, others are thriving as if the disaster never happened. It’s a clever parallel, but the execution in the story derails the otherwise superb concept.
Sunday relies on the audience to be invested in the question “Will they or won’t they?” However, it’s difficult to root for Charlie and Eve for one simple reason: we hardly ever see them ‘click’. Without this footing, their goal of rebuilding their collapsed love isn’t recognisable. It’s one thing to be told they were intimate partners, but to convince us of this intimacy requires evidence – which is largely missing from the film.
The flashbacks of when they were together attempt to give us such evidence, but these segments are too brief, too fleeting, too dialogue-free in a film reliant on dialogue. When we do see the couple in full conversation, Charlie’s attempts at rekindling their old chemistry are largely cut down by Eve’s apparent disinterest – a defensive mechanism to prevent her getting hurt by Charlie again. Shots of humour are fired to energise the dilemma, though they either hit with a witty contrast of perspectives (swearing in front of the foetus) or misfire with incongruent rom-com goofiness (an unfortunate rap-a-gram).
It’s impossible not to compare Sunday to Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset, though Linklater’s film demonstrates the romantic connection in its couple in ways that aren’t evident in Lloyd’s film. Aside from the fact that it has an entire movie as its flashback (Before Sunrise), Sunset has its couple reciprocating jokes, ideas, stories and feelings with an energy that makes an expressive script even more so. With Sunday, Eve and Charlie’s small talk is made even smaller with moments that feel awkwardly static, whether they’re slow dancing to no music or standing/sitting/lying down motionless for long periods of time.
This is not to deny the few moments the film sparks with quality. Leads, co-writers, and real-life couple Dustin Clare and Camille Keenan are the centre of Sunday’s best scenes – usually on the longer takes. They can play off each other superbly, with one scene on a floating gondola (ahem, “punt”) showing the film’s potential for displaying slow-burn internal anguish. Unfortunately, that very same scene is cut off at the knees by the aforementioned rom-com goofiness.
Giving a local film a low rating is never easy. There’s an ugly assumption that there’s some sort of technical incompetency to the filmmaking craft, but this is not the case with Sunday. It’s elegantly shot and complemented with a tender soundtrack, the editing flares in select moments, and Clare and Keenan play their roles with unquestionable conviction. But no matter how solid the foundation is, neglect in the narrative can stop us from being let in. That’s essentially what Sunday is: a strong building without a door.
There’s also another assumption: that there’s some sort of incompetency with me, the reviewer. If that’s what you believe, then good. My ego is minuscule compared to the immense talent and tireless dedication shown by Lloyd and co., so I’d like nothing more than to be proven wrong. Given that you can see this film in cinema, on DVD, On Demand and even on a commercial flight right now, there’s no reason why you can’t formulate your own opinion of this film immediately. All you have to do is click below.
‘Sunday’ Movie Times and DVD/On Demand options
