Crystal and her boyfriend Leo are on a road trip through the hot humid Florida Everglades, but they seem hurried and stressed instead of relaxed and happy. Throughout the trip, the audience is slowly let in on the dark details of what the drive is about, as well as what lies ahead.
This film depends solely on the performances from the two leads as they portray raw, desperate passion throughout the story. I had to let this film sit with me for a day or so before I decided why I liked it, and even now I'm not entirely sure. You could call this a love story, a dark love story.
The setting delivers the discomfort of our characters right to the audience with the heat from the desolate landscape. Sun Don't Shine is good because it is different and because it shows the burdened truth and complexity of a relationship. Here we see a couple attracted to one another despite their flaws and in over their heads as they go to great lengths to protect each other, the relationship, and themselves out of blind, irrational love and desperation. Chewing on this film has left me analyzing relationships and the innate, human potential for crazy and bad things that we all possess.
