Around the Sun is a drama film directed by Oliver Krimpas and starring Cara Theobold and Gethin Anthony.
Breathtakingly romantic
Around the Sun is a story about Maggie and Bernard who meet each other while the former gives Bernard a tour of a repossessed but crumbling chateau. During the course of checking out the property, Bernard slowly falls in love with the place and the enigmatic Maggie while talking about life, books, and science-fiction.
This movie is breathtakingly beautiful, and not just due to how it looks. The story, the characters, the background score, and the cinematography are so well joined together that it makes you fall in love with it.
The two title characters, Maggie and Bernard, unravel their stories the more they spend time with each other and they are such relatable, strong, funny and likeable characters that you are absolutely immersed in it. Along with their absolutely realistic portrayals and mind-blowing performances, the story is so beautifully woven that it makes you wonder and fall in love at the same time.
It’s a very uniquely-made movie. Scenes are repeated again and again, and although it plays out similarly, it is never exactly the same. Every time the same scene plays out differently, with different situations and reactions. It makes you wonder whether all these sequences are taking place side-by-side, and if multiple worlds really do exist. Do these two people know each from a time they’ve already spent in some other dimension, or is this just a representation of the 17th century story?
At the heart of Around the Sun is Bernard Le Bovier De Fontenelle and his book Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds. In the book, a philosopher and an aristocratic woman, over a weeklong dialogue, talk about how the universe works. The book was highly famous and it made understanding of the world easy to the common people. It’s a book that is very close to Maggie’s heart, and the way she talks about it and shares her ideas about the world, life and even Sci-Fi is astonishingly beautiful.
Director Oliver Krimpas does an amazing job at taking this dialogue-heavy film in a light and heart-touching direction. The chemistry between the lead pair, coupled with the beautiful location is enough to make anyone fall in love. The discussion on philosophy and science is made weirdly romantic by the way the story progresses – it’s meshed together admirably and is wonderful to watch. Although there’s a lot of themes here, it still manages to deftly be attached firmly to the ground, and gives us a realistic, yet thoughtful, story which keeps you hooked to the end.
Summing Up: Around the Sun
Around the Sun is a witty, humorous, thoughtful take about science, cosmology and romance. Its 85-minutes runtime seem to drift by effortlessly, and right after it ends you pine for more. Although movies that are generally dependant on conversations tend to drag after a bit, this one does an excellent job at keeping the story tight and interesting. The leads’ brilliant acting is also a plus. The movie makes you think and fall in love – with the people, the surrounding and the music that binds everything together.
It’s a must-watch for anyone who wants to think and wonder – there’s something very real about Around the Sun and trying to find it is a beautiful journey.
Around the Sun is available to rent.
Read our other reviews here.