Sunshine Cleaning

It's very rare that we get to see lead characters in movies doing real work. Oh sure, they may mention in their dialogue that they had to put in a late day at the office (which we don't see), or complain that they don't get enough respect on the job, but we seldom actually get to see them at work, unless they're a doctor, a lawyer, or a reporter. That's part of what fascinated me about Sunshine Cleaning. Not only do the main characters clean up murder scenes after the police are gone, but we get to see the details of them at work, and the little tricks of the trade. (What's the best way to dispose of a blood-soaked mattress of a suicide victim?)

There's a lot more to the film's appeal, fortunately. The movie is funny, smart, quirky (but not annoyingly so), and filled with two bright performances by the stars, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. Adams' character, Rose Lorkowski, is the one who gets them into the business of cleaning up crime scenes. Rose is a faded beauty, still living off her past glory days as the most popular girl in high school and head cheerleader. Now she's a single mother to a bright but troubled young boy named Oscar (Jason Spevack), and has to repeat to herself inspirational quotes and phrases that she keeps taped to her bathroom mirror just to get out of bed in the morning. Rose gets the idea of the business venture from a police officer named Mac (Steve Zahn), whom she used to date back in school when he was the team quarterback and is now having an affair with, even though he's married to another woman. Rose needs the money to send her son to a different school, and enlists the aid of her sister Norah (Blunt), an aimless slacker who still lives with their father (Alan Arkin) and can't seem to hold down a job, as her business partner in the crime scene cleaning industry.

Sunshine Cleaning is sweet and kind of light in tone, but there's a lot of darkness under the surface that begins to show itself as the film progresses. The various murder and suicide scenes that they are called in to clean up slowly brings up a lot of painful memories for the two sisters of when their mother killed herself when they were children. They deal with their personal pain in different ways. Rose tries to hold onto the happy memories of her high school days, hoping that maybe Mac will leave his current wife, and come back to her. She knows she is probably fooling herself, but it's all she has to hold onto to convince herself she's not a complete failure in life. As for Norah, she helps her own pain by trying to help others. At one of the crime scenes, she finds the photo of an adult daughter of the victim. She tracks the person down, and strikes up a relationship with them that eventually becomes deeper and stronger than she could have imagined. This subplot could have been a little more focused, and seems to be dropped quite quickly when it's concluded, but the performance by Mary Lynn Rajskub as the daughter makes it worthwhile. Rose helps others along the way also, such as the sweet scene where she comforts an elderly woman whose husband has killed himself.

Credit must be given to first-time screenwriter Megan Holley, who not only manages to successfully combine light, quirky comedy with more serious ideas, but also manages to create honest and realistic characters that we can care about. Rose and Norah are charismatic women that we instantly find ourselves attached to, and become even more so as the film explores their personalities and their pasts with greater detail. It also helps that Adams and Blunt have great chemistry together, and come across believably as sisters in the way they talk and act around each other. There's also a great supporting character, a one-armed man named Winston (Clifton Collins Jr) who runs the hardware store, and helps the sisters get into their business, as well as in their personal lives. While more could have been done with the character, Collins still steals every scene he's in. As for Alan Arkin, he's enjoyable as the father (who is always coming up with get rich quick schemes that never pan out), but he seems to be giving the same performance he gave three years ago in Little Miss Sunshine.

I enjoyed the movie greatly, and yet while I was watching it, I kept on thinking to myself that I should be enjoying it even more. As I look over this review, I see I keep on using phrases like "unfocused" and "more could have been done". The script has all the ingredients for a memorable movie, but doesn't follow through completely with some of them. It doesn't hurt the film, but it did leave me wanting more, or maybe wishing it was a little longer. (It's about 100 minutes as is.) And yet, the narrative never slows down or gets jumbled in too many ideas. What is there on the screen is developed enough for me to be satisfied. For all its faults, Sunshine Cleaning is worth tracking down as the film slowly expands across the country.

Which brings the question as to why the film's distributor, Overture Films, is releasing it so slowly. There's no doubt in my mind that this could be a huge crowd pleaser, especially with female audiences who would no doubt embrace it, especially after having stuff like Confessions of a Shopaholic and New in Town shoved at them. Sunshine Cleaning is quiet, intelligent, and filled with wonderful characters who I won't be forgetting anytime soon. Hopefully they're confident enough to give this movie the attention it deserves.

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