On Monday's General Hospital:

While using the pass Lucky arranged for her to visit Jason, Elizabeth all but tells Jason she hopes that once he is free the two of them can be a family with her kids. Jason, however tells her he will abide by the sacrifices he's made for Jake's sake and encourages her to keep her current family solid for his son's sake. In the meantime Lucky, angry that Liz actually used the pass and curious about what Sam had said in the park, confronted her, wanting to know if Jason loves Liz. In a case of unusual restraint, Sam kept Liz and Jason's secret.

Even with Sam keeping the secret to herself, Lucky has to be beyond suspicious. He is one of PC's finest after all. How can he not read between the lines on this one?

Alexis's and Carly's plan to get their hands on Jerry's PDA went a long way for comic relief but was completely unsuccessful as Jerry was on to them the whole time. When Ric stopped by, allegedly to discuss Molly's visitation with Alexis, and found Jerry and Alexis drinking wine, he lost it, saying Molly would not be allowed to be with her if she was associating with Jerry.

While I would normally say any father has the right to be concerned over Jerry's presence, the way Ric's been acting the last year has me not care one lick about what he says. Now that Alexis appears to be healthy I'm so ready for her to knock that smug attitude out of him.

As hard as Kate tried to resist the effects of the aphrodisiac she had accidentally taken, it got the best of her and she gave in to temptation with Sonny. When Warren discovered she had accidentally taken the wrong pills from his pocket, he called Kate and apologized and explained. As I predicted, Kate wrote off the incident and vowed to Sonny it would never happen again.

At the Metro Court benefit party, Noah – posing as Eli – was downing the shots like there was no tomorrow, worrying and infuriating Patrick who could no longer hold his tongue. Patrick stepped in, nearly blowing Noah's cover. As I suspected Anna had it all under control and was giving the good doctor water, not vodka. She promised Patrick she would keep his father safe from temptation, which obviously included the over-eager fan looking for a repeat performance in Eli's bed. After Anna chased her away by spraying her with water, Noah pulled her close and the two kissed – changing the scope of Robin's and Patrick's concern.

Ah the many temptations of being a rockstar, or pretending to be a rockstar as the case may be. This viewer is hoping the kiss wasn't part of the act, because it would be so nice to see Noah involved in a romantic relationship and Anna has just the fiery personality to be a good match – even if Robin and Patrick are weirded out by the idea of their parents being involved.

On Tuesday's GH:

• After hearing from Jason that he and Sam are over. Carly takes the task of getting Sam out of his apartment into her own hands.
• Edward and Monica put Lulu under house-arrest to keep her from Logan.
• Maxie finds herself in a similar situation as last year, when she tries to procure drugs for a strung out and volatile Cody.

Wife, mother, aspiring novelist, and music editor at BC Magazine, Connie Phillips spends most of her time in a fantasy land of her own creating. In reality, she writes about music, television, and the process of writing, when she’s not cheering on her kids at equestrian events. Contact: Phillips.connie@gmail.com

At what point does a sublime experience turn into a traumatic one? A strange philosophical question that no postmodernist intellectual has advanced, as far as I’ve heard. It’s a question that we, as an audience, might ask of Danny Boyle’s new sci-fi thriller, Sunshine, and though (like many of the questions posed by/of the narrative) it’s never answered, it’s probably worth the journey across the threshold.

Boyle is famous for some of his other violent, psychological head-trips. From Trainspotting to 28 Days Later, Boyle seems obsessed with traumatic experiences that tax both our minds and our bodies. Sunshine is the story of such an extreme experience: in the shadow of the dying galaxy, a small crew of a ship called the Icarus II is charged with piloting an apocalyptic bomb into the sun in order to restart its fusion mechanisms.

Boyle flaunts his influences. At times, the film seems like a remake of 2001: A Space Odyssey, especially during the first half, when the imagery is dominated by slow, balletic interstellar maneuvers and stunning lights and colors. This half of the film is also when the psychological elements are most developed, and it’s this first half that audiences should remember most fondly. This also may be when Boyle seems most an artist: the visuals are unique, sublime, and engaging, and the film looks like it might develop as a ghostly portrait of a crew, rather than as a horror sci-fi scramble.

After the first hour, there’s a key change in tone and pace, and Sunshine becomes less about psychological balance and nuance and more about tension and claustrophobia. The key scene, where the transition takes place, is the crew’s exploration of another ship, the Icarus I, and this scene is punctuated by one of the most ruthless little cinematic tricks available to the filmmaker (a trick popularized by Tyler Durden in Fight Club). This tense, ghostly stretch is where the film breaks down into certain accepted horror conventions.

To Sunshine’s credit, it never breaks into the excess that characterizes so much horror these days. Though it’s often compared to Event Horizon, Sunshine has nothing like the gore or torture that pervaded that film. Boyle’s use of an unstable, unfocused lens has been criticized, but it’s necessary to keep Sunshine from becoming a simple monster movie. The hazy camera work helps replace the revulsion of classic horror with the fear and claustrophobic confusion that you’d find in an extreme environment that’s breaking down around you.

To be fair to the critics, the antagonist was barely developed, and appeared less as a true villain than as another disaster that happened to befall the crew. The audience never feels his presence as a character, and this is one of the biggest weaknesses that can be ascribed to this intelligent, but slightly schizophrenic film.

In contrast, however, the rest of the crew of the Icarus II was surprisingly well-rendered. In a rare moment of filmmaking, there was no sudden twist that turned a hero into a villain. The audience is allowed and encouraged to side with the whole crew, and to hope for the resolution of their differences and the achievement of their goal… even when this means their ultimate demise.

In closing, we have here a movie in two parts: the first, a sublime, haunting trip through outer and inner space, convincing on both a cosmic and a personal level; the second, the breakdown of that early harmony, a panicked rising action where the psychological constitution of the characters is tested and reconsidered. I’d suggest going for the first half, and enjoying the second half as a corollary. I’m not going to speak for horror buffs, being largely unfamiliar with that demographic, but anyone with a passing interest in speculative fiction, psychological and cosmic suspense, or the power of imagery will find the film worth its inconsistencies.