April 7, 2009: Sunshine Cleaning
I was excited about Sunshine Cleaning going in, and it’s my kind of movie, which is a good way to start a viewing experience. All too often it’s the other way around. Amy Adams is more than just a flavour of the month, with two Oscar nominations under her belt now. Emily Blunt paid her TV dues in the UK for a couple of years before The Devil Wears Prada brought her to the eyes of a large North American audience, and now she plays a pretty convincing American. And Alan Arkin takes another shot at the grumpy and sardonic father/grandfather character he reinvented himself with in 1998 in Slums of Beverly Hills, and for which he won an Oscar in Little Miss Sunshine a couple of years ago. The story is about two sisters cleaning up gruesome crime scenes. Sign me up.
Amy Adams plays Rose, a single mother and former high school head cheerleader who now works as a maid. Her sister Norah (Emily Blunt) is a bit younger, and pretty much aimless, but helps out with babysitting as Rose goes on dates with her sort-of boyfriend. Arkin plays their father, living on his own in a house in the small New Mexico town they all inhabit. The tragic loss of their mother many years ago still hangs heavy on the whole family. Rose is struggling financially, and discovers that big money can be made by cleaning up violent crime scenes. She and her sister go into business, shaky at first but finding their niche and excelling over the other cleaners through their compassion for the survivors.
I know this all sounds like paint-by-numbers quirky indie film stuff, and like many such films, it can go either way. I felt that this film succeeded, with strong performances and a story that doesn’t push reality too far in the details. It knows that we need to funnel our suspension of disbelief into the cleanup business, but by trusting the viewers, it’s possible for the movie to convince us that maybe this isn’t so implausible after all. Rose’s friendship with the clerk at the cleaning supplies store isn’t pushed to be a “relationship”, Arkin’s hare-brained moneymaking schemes seem explainable by the grief he’s shouldered for decades as the head of the family (not to mention that the setting of small-town New Mexico implies a certain level of craziness on its own), and Rose’s son’s behavioural troubles also understandably stem from the unstable past of his close family. That’s not to say that Sunshine Cleaning doesn’t stumble here and there, falling into old habits of lazy storytelling, but I found this to be ultimately a satisfying story.
Another useful point is that since the crime-scene cleanup business (and physical comedy associated with that as they ramp up) involves a fair bit of blood and gruesomeness, the R-rating is assured, which gives the screenwriters free rein to put in lots of swearing. It seems to work with these personalities.
Quirky, could have failed, but works.
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