Director: Christine Jeffs
Starring: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt & Alan Arkin
A very likeable drama that, whilst not delving into darker territory with its premise, is still enjoyable and features good performances from Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
Having been completed in 2008 and making its debut at the Sundance Film Festival in February 2008, Sunshine Cleaning finally sees its theatrical release following on the increasing critical and commercial success of its star Amy Adams and also promoting the film on the credentials of its producers who helped bring the critically acclaimed Little Miss Sunshine to cinemas (also helped by the presence of Alan Arkin in the cast). Sunshine Cleaning is an enjoyable drama with good performances from its lead actors.
Rose (Adams) is a single mother struggling to raise her son through working as a house cleaner. When her son is expelled from school, Rose wishes to send him to private school though cannot afford the costs. Through the contacts of her boyfriend Mac (Steve Zahn), a married police officer, Rose starts a business that cleans up homes and businesses after murders, suicides and other deaths have occurred, convincing her wayward sister Norah (Blunt) to assist while her father Joe (Arkin) babysits her son. With the nature of their work stirring up memories of their own mother’s suicide, Rose and Norah face challenges to their relationship and also see the value in their work’s role in helping people deal with loss.
Sunshine Cleaning is an enjoyable drama dealing with the effect of loss through the death of someone close to you quite well thanks to a good script and good performances from the cast. Whilst lighter in tone at times than might be expected of such subject matter as death or in the clean up of dead bodies, the storyline is still quite enjoyable. Both Rose and Norah are interesting characters. Rose as the former cheerleader who sees the normal, happy lives of people she used to know while she struggles to raise a child alone and involves herself in a relationship with a married man with whom, while having once dated in high school, had chosen someone else to marry and have a family with, she struggles in dealing with her own perceived failures and weaknesses and while initially taking on her new career as a way to make more money to help her son and afford a more comfortable life, she actually begins find actual value in the work emotionally and to see her own strengths. Rose’s sister Norah however, is far more troubled. Having never really recovered from her mother’s death whilst she was a child, Norah has gone from job to job and never achieved any real happiness. Through her work with her sister she begins to deal with her own feelings of loss when she goes in search of the estranged daughter of a dead woman she’d help clean up after as if, in helping this woman deal with the loss of her mother, Norah could deal with her own and move on.
The performances of the cast in Sunshine Cleaning are also enjoyable. Both Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are good as the sisters Rose and Norah, both delivering their character’s vulnerabilities and their strengths well particularly Blunt as Norah. Adams and Blunt also have good chemistry together on screen allowing for their relationship on screen to feel natural. Alan Arkin delivers another winning performance as the girls’ father, a small-time business man looking to make quick money but ultimately well-intentioned and with Arkin delivering lines with his usual dry humour. Also likeable are Jason Spevack as Rose’s troubled son Oscar, Clifton Collins Jr as a one armed, sympathetic shop keeper and Mary Lynn Rajskub who gives a touching performance as Lynn, the vulnerable daughter with whom Norah reaches out to in friendship.
Overall, while perhaps being too likeable and safe with its approach to its subject matter to truly feel profound, the performances are enjoyable and with the characters as likeable and sympathetic as they are, it would be difficult not to enjoy the film. A good, though not outstanding, drama.
Rating: 3/5
