Genre: Black Comedy, Drama
Director: Christine Jeffs
Starring: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Jason Spevack, Clifton Collins Jr.
Running Time: 91 minutes (plus trailers)
“How did she die?” “It was sorta a do-it-yourself thing”
Here’s something I’ve bet you’ve never thought about. When a person dies, there is often mess. I’m talking blood, vomit, urine, faeces and an array of other fun bodily fluids that soon soak into whatever piece of furniture or flooring that the deceased happened to punch out on. If you don’t act quickly that stuff’ll start to stink, and after a few days in the hot Albuquerque sun it becomes murder (ha ha) to get out. But don’t you worry – the job of cleaning up your relatives doesn’t have to be yours. Just turn to the girls at Sunshine Cleaning, a family owned business of dedicated professionals who work around the clock to handle the icky business of wiping the blood off the walls and vacuuming up the stray teeth, so that you can rest easy knowing that Grandma’s remains were handled by the best in the industry. Such is the premise of Sunshine Cleaning, a film about death, sisterhood and a bevy of bodily fluidsLike most people, I had never even considered that this job existed, but when I heard that they were making a film about it I was instantly intrigued. And absolutely, it is this premise that makes the movie work, even in the face of a fairly unoriginal story. The films follows two sisters: Rose (played by Amy Adams), a thirty-something single mother and ex highschool cheerleader who now works as a rent-a-maid for her wealthy former schoolmates, and Norah (played by Emily Blunt), a pot smoking slacker who still lives with her father, with no job and no ambition to find one. When Rose finds out from her lover (the town sheriff who is cheating on his wife with her) that there is money in cleaning up human remains, she decides to get in on the ground floor. With help from her reluctant sister, Rose starts up a business – Sunshine Cleaning – and along the way the two finally learn to accept each other, deal with their family demons, and blah, blah, blah.
Okay, so clearly we’ve heard this before. Single mother hasn’t got enough money to send her gifted child to a private school, and so she has to get a new job. Things work for a while, but then wouldn’t you know it, screw-up sister screws something up and everything goes south. Then along comes Mr Deus Ex Machina, things are righted and they all live happily ever after. Not original. But like I said, it is the premise that makes Sunshine Cleaning worth seeing. It’s hard not be intrigued by such a morbid concept, and from the opening scene the movie fully embraces its potential for black humour. The best moments – like when the sisters are overjoyed at the news of a fatal car accident, or when Norah explains to her ten year old nephew that suicide “is a good thing” – reminded me favourably of Six Feet Under, which is always an excellent thing to be compared to.The other great thing about the movie is the acting – which when you look at the cast is fairly unsurprising. I now have to go on a little tangent about Amy Adams, who I am quite literally in love with. She radiates this charming, bubbly energy that is undercut by a naïve vulnerability that is just so damn adorable – no wonder she gets cast as a fairytale princess in Enchanted, and a young trusting nun in Doubt. Her performance here, along with the fact that Rose has such a thoroughly depressing life, means that as a member of the audience you can’t help but want her to succeed. I haven’t actually seen Junebug, which is supposed her career defining role, but her work in Sunshine Cleaning is definitely another tick in the plus column. And as an added bonus, she spends at least fifteen minutes of the movie in her underwear!
The rest of the cast is also great. Emily Blunt is utterly believable as the sister who never gets things right, and the chemistry between her and Adams really helps sell the sisters’ bumpy relationship that was a little underdeveloped on paper. Alan Arkin is also excellent as their elderly father, whose eccentric business ventures betray his own failing mind. The movie is rounded out by some strong supporting performances, including Steve Zahn as Rose’s lover, Jason Spevack as Rose’s young son Oscar, and Clifton Collins Jr. as Winston, the one-armed potential love interest from whom the sisters buy industrial cleaning products. I especially enjoyed the relationship between Winston and Rose, because for once we have a film that doesn’t bash you over the head with a sign that reads “they’re going to fall in love”. Some subtlety makes for a nice change.There are a few annoyingly “indie” moments in Sunshine Cleaning, which I suppose was to be expected given that the poster boasts that it comes from “the producers of Little Miss Sunshine”, and that one critic called it “this years Juno”. The subplot involving the sister’s deceased mother, for instance, felt a bit forced, and the constant strumming of a lone acoustic guitar on the soundtrack got pretty tiring. However I have to admit that given the advertising material (and my own cynicism), I was actively looking out for the quirky bits, and in all honesty none of them really detract from the film. It does have an indie vibe, but not unpleasantly so, and ultimately Sunshine Cleaning feels unique and clever more times than it feels contrived.
Sunshine Cleaning is definitely a movie that is worth seeing. It’s funny, it’s entertaining, it features great performances and, as I’ve said repeatedly, the premise is just so fascinating. The other great thing is that it’s short. At only ninety one minutes, this movie doesn’t outstay its welcome; it milks the concept for as much as it’s worth, and then quits while it’s still ahead, before the indie-ness starts to irritate. It’s a refreshing watch, and I recommend it without reservation.Sunshine Cleaning is coming to the end of it's theatrical run in Australia.
