(1999) "Never give up your religion. Not for God. God is present in all religions. But if your life becomes a struggle for acceptance, you'll always be unhappy. Religion may not be perfect, but it is a well-built boat that can stay balanced and carry you to the other shore. Our life is nothing but a boat adrift on water balanced by permanent uncertainty. About the people whom you will judge, know this; all they do is struggle to find a kind of security. They're just people, like us. Therefore you mustn't judge them on the basis of appearance or hearsay. Trust no one. Examine all things yourself. Do not join with power. Despise all rank. Do not be ostentatious with what is yours. Owning possessions and property ultimately comes to nothing. Possessions and property can be consumed by fire, swept away by flood, taken away by politics. Do not undertake what you do not know. This causes anxiety which makes you ill. Exercise discipline."

In the late 19th century the Jewish distiller of a popular herbal tonic, "Taste of Sunshine" (from his father's recipe and last name), Emmanuel Sonnenschein (David de Keyser), and his wife Rose (Miriam Margolyes) have raised two sons, Gustave (James Frain) and Ignatz (Ralph Fiennes in a beard), and adopted Valerie (Jennifer Ehle) the daughter of Emmanuel's brother, in Budapest within the relatively liberal Austro-Hungarian empire; the young Hebrew men become a physician and a doctor of law, respectively.

Throughout this three-hour magnificent movie of three generations of the family, narrated by Ignatz's grandson ("If there is no God and never was a God, why do we miss him so much?") from the late 20th century, directed by István Szabó from his original story - employing elaborate settings within grand interiors as well as black-and-white scenes juxtaposed with actual historical footage - with score by Maurice Jarre, the flag of my attention never drooped.

Against his parents wishes ("God wants. We wish for"), Ignatz, after rising to judge of the Central Court (requiring him to change his name to Sors, which sounded more Hungarian, as do his brother and sister - Emmanuel rationalizes by saying, "Names are not given to us by God"), marries Valerie (teasing him by saying he's a hard judge who gave her a stiff sentence) after she gets pregnant.

The couple have two children, Istvan and Adam, before the assassination of the Archduke Ferdinand and his wife ignites world war; the two brothers, Gustave and Ignatz - who have a falling out over social and political views; Gustave, after accusing the government of corruption and permitting misery, hunger, and squalor, confronts charges of taking part in a conspiracy to overthrow the monarchy and Ignatz's curse - become majors in the military service in their respective fields.

Following the privilege of being granted a personal interview with the emperor, Ignatz interprets the coincidental deaths of the empire's leader and his father (who cautioned his ambitious son not to climb too high) as "a strange, significant omen." At war's end, Ignatz returns home after not seeing his family for four years, to be greeted by Valerie's demand of a divorce because he's "a man without feeling."

Following the revolution of 1919 and take over of the government by Communists, comrade Gustave says to his brother that "people must have their revenge." His loyalty under suspicion, Ignatz (expressing the view that people don't want freedom so much as security) is held under house arrest, and after refusing to preside over retribution trials, he is forced into retirement. When the government shifts again, Gustave flees; soon after Ignatz becomes ill (too much salt, too much bitterness) and dies, followed by his mother.

His son Adam "Junior" Sors (Fiennes in a mustache), after being humiliated ("I'll circumcise your head") for being a Jew, takes up fencing, soon becoming a brilliant swordsman, a magician with a blade; but in order to join the Officers' Club he (not a military man but a doctor of law like his father) must convert to Roman Catholicism. He's also advised to convert to fencing left-handed, making his moves less predictable.

During catechism classes, he becomes acquainted and aggressively in love with Hannah Wippler (Molly Parker), another Jew going through assimilation, winning her away from her fiancé. Adam ("my Jewish musketeer") makes the Olympic fencing team for the 1936 Games in Berlin. Also in love with Adam, Istvan's (Mark Strong) wife Greta (Rachel Weisz) tells her lover, protesting against purloining his brother's spouse: "You can't steal what's already yours."

Ignoring warnings from an American, who offers him an opportunity to go to the United States, and Greta ("I want to stay alive") as Hungarian authorities announce limitations on Jews in the public and economic spheres, Adam believes he's exempt for four reasons from the restrictions being imposed, though he's barred from further participation in the Officers' Club. When the Sors do act, it's too late: visas are no longer available to them as the borders are closed.

The women and Istvan are moved into the Budapest ghetto after the Nazi occupation (though Valerie escapes); Adam and his teenage son Ivan are sent to a labor camp where during a bitter-cold winter morning, refusing to admit he's a Jew, Adam is stripped naked, beaten, and hung from a tree while being drenched by a waterhose until his body is encased in ice, as two thousand prisoners watch mutely, guarded by just thirteen armed men.

Having been given shelter in an attic, Valerie (Rosemary Harris in the elderly role), who had taken up photography before the war ("Try to photograph what's beautiful in life"), returns home at war's end where she's reunited with her faithful servant Kato, brother Gustave (John Neville playing the older part), and grandson Ivan (Fiennes clean-haven), who answers his uncle's incredulous question of how thirteen men could hold back 2,000 Jews: "I just stood there."

Upon meeting Andor Knorr (William Hurt), also a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz, Ivan joins the police force, rising to major, ferreting out Hungarian murderers who did the Nazis' dirty work; his superior Knorr, however, allows exceptions for those found out who possess "genuine talent" in the arts.

During a celebration of Stalin's birthday, after Ivan delivers a rousing speech to an assembly of law-enforcement officers in Budapest to "find all fascist cowards and destroy them," he makes acquaintance with Maj Carole Kovacs (Deborah Kara Unger), wife of a heroic French Resistance fighter (whom she married out of admiration and for protection) and mother of his two children. Nevertheless, she falls skirt-over-her-head in love with Ivan, his first sexual adventure.

Ordered to bring in Jews involved in an alleged Zionist conspiracy to overthrow the socialist state, Ivan finds himself once again faced with a dilemma when Knorr is accused of being a Zionist agent.

In prison after his participation in the October 1956 Hungarian revolt, Ivan receives Valerie's assurance that one can endure anything if one believes in what one has done. Released after three years of a five-year sentence, realizing that "conceit is the greatest of sins, the source of other sins," Ivan is distraught over his failure to punish those who turned ideals into crimes and for the loss of his great-grandfather's gold pocket watch. He and his grandmother Valerie, urging him to find joy in life, make a search for the missing book containing the "Taste of Sunshine" recipe.

According to a posting on IMDb: "The character of Adam Sonnenschein/Sors draws heavily upon the life and death of two great Hungarian Jewish sabreurs, 'Attila Petschauer' and Endre Kabos (winner of the Olympic Gold in Sabre at the 1936 Berlin Games). Tragically, neither survived World War II and the Holocaust."

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Copyright © 2009 Patrick Ivers. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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