Sunshine Cleaning
Release Date:
March 13, 2009
On the Big Board |
| Position |
Staff |
In Brief |
| 5/21 |
Jason Lee |
Beautifully acted and superbly directed. This movie avoids all cliches with a second half that develops organically from the situation and its characters. |
| 12/13 |
Sean Collier |
Could've been more. But what was there was enjoyable, with excellent performances. |
| 55/82 |
Kelly Metz |
Just....meh. |
| 83/169 |
Max Braden |
The story is pretty simple and doesn't offer much other than what's advertised. Adams acts according to plot, but Blunt gets the emotional performance. |
All the money is in blood and guts. This is what the makers of Sunshine Cleaning would have us believe anyway. The premise here is simple. A former high school cheerleader finds herself not quite living the dream while in her 30s. She is frustrated by the way her life has devolved from the height of popularity to being a single mom who pays the bills as a maid. Sadly, she is what qualifies as the good sister from her family. Her younger sister is a burnout whose addiction has forced her to move back in with their father, a guy who has been trying to get rich quick for a period well beyond what anyone could accurately define as quick.
Attempting to make some money to pay for her son's educational needs, older sister Rose convinces younger sister Norah that the real money is in cleaning up after tragedies. Gunshots and explosions may be the only thing that put a smile on Michael Bay's face, but they leave a messy scene of the crime afterward. Few people enjoy scrubbing a good blood splattering off a wall. Because of this, people pay more for those willing to cross the yellow police tape's line of demarcation. Of course, since this is a movie, nothing is ever that simple. Obviously, two sisters who clean up a lot of crime scenes are inevitably going to fine themselves facing all sorts of mafia-related shenanigans. Sure, this may sound absurd but since the sisters are played by Amy Adams and Emily Blunt and the father is portrayed by Alan Arkin, we should all be willing to go with it. Sunshine Cleaning promises to be one of the best acted films of the early half of 2009 if nothing else, and there is a chance for something much better if the storyline isn't as silly as it sounds. (David Mumpower/BOP)
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