Sunshine Cleaning

Do you ever wonder what happens to the cool kids after high school?

Maybe it's a bit cliche but I feel that the cool kids are usually the ones that try extremely hard to hang on to that thing that made them feel and seem on top of the world and struggle to cope with the changes that occur after high school. And it's the nerds that usually didn't succeed with social endeavors but succeed academically and become wealthy and powerful in their post high school lives. I don't know if that is actually true or not, but it makes me wish I studied harder in high school. Not that I was in the cool crowd, but somewhere in between maybe. Either way, here I am floating through life trying to find my purpose. But I digress.

This is one of the themes that drives the character of Rose played by Amy Adams in the film Sunshine Cleaning. Rose was the head cheerleader in high school and dated the captain of the football team. Ten years after high school she is now cleaning the houses of her classmates and sneaking off to hotel rooms with the former football captain who is now married to another classmate.

Rose has had a series of missteps in her life and she is in a rut, not sure what exactly to do with her life. She is a single mother to a boy that she is forced to pull out of his school because of behavior problems. She is struggling to make ends meet and that is when her secret beau, played by Steve Zahn, suggests that she get into crime scene clean up because there is a lot of money to be made there. As small as this New Mexico town seems from all of the external photography, there really is a lot of bloody crime scenes to work.

Rose gets into business with her younger sister Norah, played by Emily Blunt. Norah has no job, no direction, and plenty of demons from her past to deal with. The real heart of this film is the relationship between the sisters Rose and Norah. Both have scars from a dark past that haunt them and have influenced the course of their lives in different ways. Working this business together gives them a chance to bond as well as find a way to reconcile their past and come to terms with their present lives.

The theme of older sibling taking care of troubled younger sibling has been done before so the story isn't really original but the characters are well drawn out and that it makes the story enjoyable. It's a theme that was explored in the producers last film Little Miss Sunshine to much better effect. However, I really enjoyed the chemistry between Emily Blunt and Amy Adams. Each actress added a lot of internal depth and anguish to the character that made the relationship feel real and authentic.

Alan Arkin, Steve Zahn, and Clifton Collins, Jr. round out a really good cast. The acting and characters are what made this film really enjoyable. There is a good balance of humor with some strong moments of sadness. There are some really disgusting crime scenes for them to clean up as well so it could be a little squeamish for some. I felt there were a few subplots that weren't really flushed out or concluded that left me with some unanswered questions. They were big enough for me to feel a little unfulfilled by the end of the film. I'm not sure if there were some scenes left on the editing room floor or they left them ambiguous on purpose, but I would have liked a little more closure.

Overall I would recommend this quirky independent film. The acting was really strong with some really well thought out characters. I wasn't blown away by it and it's nothing really original, but it was a fun movie none the less. It may not be playing in a lot of theatres but it's one you should seek out.