Review of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927) by John K — 06 Apr 2013

At his mistress's command, a man takes his wife on a boat ride in order to kill her, but he decides against it, and they have a lovely afternoon together.

While the cinematography is quite charming and the superimposed images were probably revolutionary and striking in their time, the story of Sunrise is streamlined and not that interesting. We know early that the man isn't going to kill his wife, so there isn't any suspense on the boat, and what follows lacks any real, compelling conflict.

Overall, for its technical achievements, Sunrise has been rightly praised, but its emotional effect is pretty close to nil.