The main reason to see the quirky “Sunshine Cleaning” is its two stars, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. These actresses play sisters, scarred by the suicide of their mother. Adams’ Rose Lorkowski, the more responsible of the sisters, aspires to be a real estate agent, but works for a conventional cleaning service. She has an illegitimate son, Oscar (Jason Spevack), a bright boy so bored at school that he gets into mischief. Rose is also having an affair with a married man Mac (Steve Zahn), who was her high school sweetheart. The flakier sister Norah (Blunt), recently fired from her job as a waitress, seems content to live with their father, Joe (Alan Arkin) and drift through life. The need to transfer Oscar to a private school spurs Rose’s entrepreneurial spirit and with Mac’s help, she opens her own business, cleaning up crime scenes and places where people have died. With Norah’s reluctant assistance, Rose is soon mopping up blood and brains and, along the way, finding a new sense of self-worth. Rose and Norah get some useful professional advice from a one-armed cleaning store proprietor named Winston (Clifton Collins Jr.). Winton’s missing arm is a source of fascination for Oscar and he becomes a possible romantic interest for Rose by movie’s end.
Amy Adams brings vulnerability and strength to her character, making Rose seem real and sincere and you genuinely care what happens to her. You want her to succeed at her new job and you want her to find happiness (but not with Mac). Emily Blunt’s skill, especially her facial expressions, makes the unreliable Norah a heart-breaking individual. And the journey the sisters take to resolve some of the issues that have stunted their growth makes this movie worthwhile viewing. “Sunshine Cleaning” has been compared to “Little Miss Sunshine” and found wanting. But on its own, this is a bittersweet comedy with a pair of creative and appealing talents. 3/4/09
1 comment:
I really like Amy Adams because she is willing to take risks in a movie like “Sunshine Cleaning”. It would be easy for her to take roles like “Enchanted” and be typecast but she does not. Her last film was “Doubt” where she got a nomination for her well acted role as a nun in a child molesting story and stood up to some top actors. She is one of the few actresses who can be both strong and vulnerable in the same roles and be convincing. She has a lot of range in her acting ability and the more I see her the better I like her.
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