And yet, none of Strong's performances irked me quite as much as his turn in Sunshine as Captain Pinbacker, a man sent on the previous mission to re-ignite the sun, a religious radical who believed that God had willed Earth to die. He ends up severely disfigured by the sun, and sneaks onboard the ship carrying the latest crew attempting to fire a nuclear payload into the sun, being revealed in the final half-hour of the film as the main antagonist. As if the toil of an unlikely mission wasn't danger enough, Danny Boyle strangely opted to hurl in a slasher film scenario in the final act, a lame attempt to ratchet up the tension. Buried beneath a layer of grotesque make-up, Pinbacker is shot with irritating evasiveness by Boyle, so we don't get much insight into him as an assailant or simply as a human being. He ends up serving his narrative function and then promptly being blown to bits; Strong barely gets a look in. What are your favourite and least favourite Mark Strong performances? Let us know in the comments below.
