Review of Sunshine on Leith (2013) by Steve W — 04 Oct 2013
Sunshine on Leith is an enjoyable, exuberant film musical that is based on the songs of The Proclaimers. It tells the story of two young Scottish soldiers who return to their families in Edinburgh after serving in Afghanistan.
What awaits each of them is an unsettled future during which they are forced to confront a number of issues that make it difficult to rehabilitate themselves successfully into civilian life. The cast, which includes Jane Horrocks and Peter Mullan, is very good.
The cinematography is first rate (Edinburgh looks stunning), as are the staging of the set-piece routines and the choreography. And we even get a brief, Hitchcock-like cameo appearance by The Proclaimers themselves, who are seen near the start of the film emerging from an Edinburgh pub.
From my personal perspective, there is one underlying problem with Sunshine on Leith, the transition from spoken dialogue to singing seems to me to be unnatural and mildly clumsy in a way that does not appear to be the case on stage.
That problem aside, Sunshine on Leith is an engaging film, albeit one that is unlikely to live long in the memory.
This review of Sunshine on Leith (2013) was written by Steve W on 04 Oct 2013.
Sunshine on Leith has generally received positive reviews.
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