Sunshine Cleaning

I find that when people ask me what this movie is about I have a hard time successfully telling them. Read the synopsis by all means, but like most summaries it barely scratches the surface. It's a story about a mother who leaves her family in the most permanent way imaginable. It's about a father struggling to maintain his unflappable optimism, a sister whose self-esteem leads her into self-sabotaging habits, another who is in complete emotional freefall, a son who is becoming aware of his family's dynamic and how it compares to the rest of the world's and how they manage to regain their footing by pursuing a very unusual profession. At its heart it is always about family. At their best Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are some of the most talented actresses working today and I was happy to see them both in a script worthy of their skills. Both are gifted at line delivery, but some of their most powerful scenes are nonverbal. The dynamic between all the characters is thoroughly real and enjoyable. I found myself very satisfied by all their resolutions. It was an excellent story to watch unfold.

Reviewed August 2010

Though you know how the story is going to turn out, it was made captivating by fantastic performances by ever too reliable Amy Adams and fast shining Emily Blunt.

I have seen references to Little Miss Sunshine by some of the critics, what's the relation? Checked the writer and director's past movies doesn't include it. I wonder at this this because I thought it felt like Little Miss Sunshine at some level before reading the references. It's a story of a positive minded slightly dysfunctional family who are going through some tough times for bad choices made in the past. The screenplay and conclusion are conventional and made to the writer's comfort. Emily Blunt has a terrific voice diction, hope to see her in some good animated character.

The character Oscar is charming and Grampa is the same as in Little Miss Sunshine. Though this movie does not break any ground, I couldn't find anything that I did not like in it.

The title of this movie gives very little away. We know it's about a cleaning company, but that's about it. Well, the company specialises in crime scene clean-ups. That's all the mess that's left after the body has been removed and the police have finished their investigation. This engaging independent film tells how two sisters in New Mexico got into the business and what happened as a consequence.

The sisters in question are Rose and Norah Lorkowski. Rose has a son, Oscar and Norah still lives with their father, Joe. Oscar gets expelled from school and Rose has to make more money to get him into another one. She is having an affair with a cop, Mac, who suggests she goes into the lucrative crime scene clean-up business. Having looked into it she ropes Norah in and they start cleaning up after all kinds of deaths, quite badly at first. Then they meet Winston who runs a store that sells cleaning supplies. He takes pity on them and helps them with paperwork and the like. During this tale we learn a lot about the girls and their lives and some of the reasons they turned out the way they did.

This is a pretty well made film which has quite a slow pace. It does tend to wander off on a tangent now and then, but I didn't find that too distracting. Excellent performances all round, particularly from Amy Adams as Rose, Emily Blunt as Norah and Alan Arkin as Joe. Honourable mentions should also go to; Jason Spevack as Oscar, Steve Zahn as Mac and Clifton Collins Jr. as Winston.

Over all I found the gentle pace of this film quite refreshing. It allows the audience to absorb what's going on rather than have it thrust at you like some crazy 3D piranha. The film is very much about feelings, sorry, no blood and guts here, unless it's already on a wall, of course. I guess it will be enjoyed more but female viewers, but still, as a male in touch with his feminine side (she made me say that), recommended.

My score: 7.1/10

Of late, independent films seem to fall into three ruts; the quirky indie film, the contrived indie film and the quirkily contrived indie film. Thankfully, for the most part, Sunshine Cleaning manages to avoid these associated pitfalls, and is instead a benchmark for how two sensational performances can succeed in drastically improving the quality of a film.

These aforementioned indie clichés are quite the conundrum when looked at thoughtfully. The birth of independent film-making stemmed from creativity and desire to be liberated from the shadow of the major movie conglomerates. Yet now, most of these offbeat flicks are as cold and calculated as any big budget summer movie and often drown in wacky plots and bizarre characters which are not of what free film should be an expression.

Starring the consistently stellar and always delightful leading ladies of Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, Sunshine Cleaning tells the bittersweet story of two sisters (Adams and Blunt) and their struggles to purge the horror of their mother's suicide and live normal lives. Adams as Rose and Blunt as Norah are polar opposites; Rose was the head cheerleader in high school and aches to regain that notoriety in her adult life and Norah the 'screw-up', the black sheep of the family. They are held together loosely by Rose's son Oscar and their father (Alan Arkin) that is until they find themselves in need of work. Through a less than professional police connection of Rose's (Steve Zahn) they come to start a crime scene cleanup service called Sunshine Cleaning and while they sought money, they ended up finding something more profound.

Adams and Blunt truly are remarkable and give bonafide Oscar worthy performances. Their characters never fall to any deprecating indie quirks, and are fully realized individuals. Zahn is solid in a smaller role, as is Clifton Collins Jr. as a clean-up store owner and all lend to a story that did not by any means conclude where I was suspecting. Many of the subplots are left open, but not in a unsatisfying way and while featuring ups and downs along the way, Sunshine Cleaning manages to find a hopeful tone without being sticky sweet. Perhaps by favourite aspect outside of the performances was Adam's character. We have seen in many films the former cheerleader who has grown up under the shadow of the 'losers' of their school, but never have I seen such an honest look from the view of the former. Perhaps this is a testament to Adams acting skills, but I was impressed nevertheless.

Sunshine Cleaning keeps you involved based on characters alone. There is certainly humour, tragedy and emotion to drive the story but all is born from the relationship between this broken family. I wish fresh faced director Christine Jeffs had forgone all the trends of the recent independent film movement, but there is still more then enough to admire about Sunshine Cleaning, and even more to love.

I quite liked the film. I would watch Amy Adams stare at grass and Emily Blunt is always top notch. One thing that stuck out for me about the film was that it offers a look at real working-class people doing real work, and does so in a respectful manner. Rose tries to put a positive spin on her post-mortem cleanup work to gathered yuppies in an awkward social setting and is clearly defensive. But you can see her coming to value the work for the good it does. There is nothing wrong with adventure thrillers about high crimes and misdemeanors, about the far-too-well-to-do, and about easy lives, but it is heartening to see hard-scrabble work valued, not just as a barrier to be overcome but as a thing that has intrinsic value and that does real good. Rose and Nora take on work that the yuppie ladies would never dream of tackling, and do real good for real people. This is a film that does not dazzle us with fireworks or glitter, but it has heart. We like that.