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Oranges and Sunshine -- Film Review

4:50 PM PDT 11/1/2010 by Natasha Senjanovic

ROME –- Prolific TV director Jim Loach (son of Ken Loach) has his heart in the right place for his feature debut “Sunshine and Oranges,” but a plodding script and muted staging strangely strip away the emotional punch of this true story on the forced immigration of English children to Australia in the mid 20th century. (Some 130,000 children were shipped to the British colonies from as early as the 17th century through to the 1970s).

Despite high-caliber movie actors Emily Watson and Hugo Weaving, and screenwriter Rona Munro (“Ladybird, Ladybird”), “Sunshine” is stretched thin for the big screen. The decidedly art-house film is better suited for television, and should do well in ancillary markets.

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