film review

Sunshine Cleaning

Sunshine Cleaning – Starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, and Alan Arkin
Genre: Comedy/Drama; Rated: M

When I decided to watch this movie, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to be in for. A duo of sisters who open their own biohazard removal crime scene cleaning business? I wasn't sure how far they were going to push the gross factor or if in trying to go in the other direction of making everything funny, the seriousness of the moment would be bypassed. By the end of the first scene, which, for your warning, is pretty intense, I really wasn't sure what direction it would go.

But it turns out this movie is a quirky story about family, love and finding what you want out of life. Single mother Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams), is trying to pay for her son to go to private school. As we watch her life unfold, we see that as an ex-cheerleader, the world was her oyster, but as life carried on, it swept away her dreams and expectations for herself. Her sister, Norah (Emily Blunt), seems unable to commit herself to a job. Together, they open Sunshine Cleaning, a lucrative business in cleaning up the messes other people have left behind.

The dynamic between the two sisters is an offbeat kind of relationship. Rose's never failing optimistic view on things is a stark comparision to Norah's darker, cynical view on life. Once they embark on this adventure together, they find they have to face up to each other and to their past.

Although the movie centers around a gory, but necessary fact, Norah and Rose's characters offer up some laughs. There is a moment with a mattress and a dumpster that while may make you a little queasy, you can't help but laugh. Then there is the scene with Norah, a kitten, and a candle that has disastrous ramifications.

Sunshine Cleaning is a movie that highlights the importance and strength of the ties that hold our hearts together in our families, despite our differences and circumstances. While it laughs up the industry it is representing at times, there are darker undertones about the complexity of relationships and family dynamics.