"Sunshine Cleaning" Review - Written by Anthony Thurber

Sunshine Cleaning
Year: 2009
Director: Christine Jeffs
Stars: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin
MPAA Rating: R
Studio: Overtune Films
Running Time: 91 Mins






“Sunshine Cleaning” is a film that I’ve been looking forward to, since hearing about at Sundance, as it really looked like the dark comedy that yours truly might be interested in. Thankfully, this didn’t turn out be “Gigantic” all over again, and had everything that made sense.

The film is about a single mother (Amy Adams), who is trying to put her son into a private school after being expelled. If that wasn’t any worse, she also has to deal with a sister (Emily Blunt), who can’t hold a job, her eccentric father (Alan Arkin), who’s always coming up with these get rich quick schemes, and having an affair with a detective (Steven Zahn), who she dated in high school. Then one day, she along with her sister starts a bio-hazard crime scene cleaner business, to pay for her son’s tuition. Soon, they begin to have a lot of problems with the business and each other. In order to overcome this, the sisters must overcome their troubled past and their own differences with their lives and each other.

The film is quirky and heartwarming film that looks at the ups and down of life. Director, Christine Jeffs does a very good job giving this film a very akward and dark tone. One of the things that she manages to do is that she keeps the tone of the film the same throughout. Jeffs does that by not letting the tone of the film gets too dark or become overly humorous to the point that it becomes a straight comedy, which would hurt the message of the film. But the main thing that makes the direction very good, the way that she handles each of the film’s performances. There were some very good performances here, especially from Amy Adams, who is quickly becoming one of Hollywood’s leading ladies and Alan Arkin, who really steals the shows as the girl’s father.

But what makes this film very good is the screenplay from first-time screenwriter, Megan Holley. This screenplay really does a good job making everything in the film seem down to earth. It didn’t fell like the typical Hollywood story, as it doesn’t try to fake the fact that t. She achieves that, by giving depth to both of the main characters, as each of both of them are going through a rough situation, in their lives. One who’s having trouble with the fact that everyone in her class is successful and she feels like a total failure, while her son gets kicked out of school. The other is accident prone, as she can’t hold a job and lives with her eccentric father. They also have an interested backstory that connects to the main subject and tone of the film. It makes you feel for them and wants you to see them succeed. Holley also does a great job developing the relationship between the sisters, as you get moments that you that are both humorous and heartwarming. But the main thing that makes this very good was the fact this is not the kind of film, where everything is going to be fine, because it isn’t. The end of the film leaves you with a feeling that life is not perfect, as there are ups and downs in everything you do, you always know that you’ll have family with you.

“Sunshine Cleaning” is a dark comedy that is filled with good performances and an excellent screenplay.

Review Rating: Five Stars.