Sunshine Cleaning

Starring: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Jason Spevack, Steve Zahn, Clifton Collins, Jr.
Directed by: Christine Jeffs
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama
2008

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two sisters (Amy Adams, Emily Blunt) decide to start a crime-scene cleaner business to get them some cash and propel them forward in life. Along the way, the two sisters occasionally clash, deal with their aging father (Alan Arkin) and struggle with life's unforeseen situations.

Review:

Tim: Sunshine Cleaning is a small little independent movie that sought to recapture the magic of movies like Little Miss Sunshine to appeal to a much wider audience than was expected. The biggest problem with this movie is that it far too closely resembles Little Miss Sunshine. While the subject matter is different, the tone, feel, and atmosphere are strangely similar. Both movies even cast Alan Arkin as the grumpy grandfather. This comparison greatly hurts this movie because it simply doesn't reach the heights of that 2006 movie. That makes this film feel like a cheap ripoff, trying to ride on the coattails of that movie.

Trying to put all that aside, this is not a terrible movie. It does feature some very strong performances. Amy Adams is quite good in the lead role. She's an impressive actor and I like her work here. Likewise, Emily Blunt continues to solidify her career by giving strong performance after strong performance. I enjoyed the interactions between Adams and Blunt. I also have to say I enjoyed the presence of Alan Arkin, even though he basically played the same role as he did in Little Miss Sunshine. The only major difference is he sure isn't going to win an Academy Award for this performance. Rounding out the cast was the typically strong Steve Zahn, whom I only wish had more to do on screen. I really like him, but he gets far too many thankless roles. The cast is quite strong.

I also really liked that this movie was quite different from most other movies (except, obviously, the previously mentioned one). I thought that the plot about starting a crime scene cleaning business was quite interesting. I appreciated that the film went into some detail about it, but this is also an area where I believe the movie dropped the ball. On the one hand, we have this interesting story about two women working in a business, cleaning up after recently dead people. This is quite interesting and ammounted to a good deal of laughs. However, the film is also about a fragile family, trying to hold itself together, specifically around two sisters and their relationship. The problem is that the movie never follows either path to its conclusion. We get this story about the cleaning business, but it never feels like this is fully fleshed out. I wanted more, and this part of the story is wrapped up too quickly and conveniently. Likewise, the story of this family is entertaining, but it feels incomplete- as if something is missing. This would have been a better movie had it had a more satisfying ending.

Sunshine Cleaning is at least a fairly decent movie that offers a different experience than most of the films out there. While I never condone a movie trying to emulate a previous, successful one (stand on your own two feet!), I have to admit that Little Miss Sunshine is not a bad movie to copy. While this film has a few strong points, it never achieves what it sets out to achieve. In this case, lightning did not strike twice.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend:
Little Miss Sunshine; Happy, Texas; Charlie Wilson's War