012: Sunshine Cleaning (2009)

Title: Sunshine Cleaning
Starring: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin
Directed By: Christine Jeffs

There came a time while watching Sunshine Cleaning that I realized something just isn't right. This character is way too sweet and likeable to have such a perceivably hard life. And then it hit me, it isn't hard. Her kid's a kid. Her relationship's a relationship. Her life's a life. That's how it goes sometimes. The thing that was bothering me about the film was how difficult it tried to make everything look, while still moving inevitably toward its (forced) happy ending.

Rose (Adams) is a sweet single mom in a crappy relationship with her married high school sweetheart. She has a crappy job and drives a crappy car. We know all we need to know about Rose about 5 minutes in. Yet, all of these points are thrown at us again and again and again in its 91 minute runtime. Also in the first 5 minutes, Rose gets the idea to open her own crime scene cleanup company. It would have been a fascinating five minutes really, if all the hard work weren't done by EVERYONE ELSE.

In fact, Rose begins to become an afterthought because the people in her life are so much more interesting than her. Her son Oscar (played by Jason Spevack) has wonderful, interesting exchanges in most of his scenes. His is a story worth exploring more than watching Rose cry by herself for the fourth time because of how crappy everything is. Or perhaps we could have spent more time with Rose's sister Norah (Blunt). Norah begins an ill-fated friendship/relationship with Lynn (played impeccably by Mary Lynn Rajskub) through her connection to one of their crime scene jobs. And I definitely could have spent some more time with Winston (Clifton Collins Jr.), the one-armed model plane building cleaning supply store clerk. His scenes with Oscar are among the best the film has to offer.

I know it sounds like a lot of negative, but the movie isn't bad by any means. It sticks perfectly to the indie formula, even when the script forces it a little as with the "tying up all loose ends into a nice happy bow" ending. The direction and camera work are good. The performances are solid throughout with the exception of Amy Adams whose "so-pathetic-it's-cute" schtick wears a little thin by the film's conclusion. All in all, standard fare.

Score: 6.5/10