Directed by Christine Jeffs
Amy Adams and Emily Blunt actually look very much like sisters, and they team up well in this hilarious American indie film as two underachieving sisters who make a killing out of crime. Produced by the same people who were responsible for Little Miss Sunshine, this film tackles another taboo subject and has the audience in stitches with the blackest of humour on the grisliest of subjects – cleaning up blood-soaked crime scenes.
At high school, Rose (Amy Adams) was the popular cheer leader who was going to marry the quarter back, but now she is struggling to support her son working as a cleaner, and having an affair with the quarterback Mac (Steve Zahn) who married someone else. Her sister Norah (Emily Blunt) still lives at home and doesn’t bother getting up before noon, while their father Joe (Alan Arkin) minds Rose’s son Oscar (Jason Spevack) who has been kicked out of school. Desperate to get money to send her son to a private school, Rose starts Sunshine Cleaning and convinces her sister to help her with the lucrative business of cleaning up crime scenes. Ever-positive Rose and depressed Norah are on a steep learning curve as they learn about biohazards, cleaning products, correct disposal procedures and each other.
Every time it looks as if the film is going to be dragged down by sentimentality, the characters inject it with a new round of inappropriate humour. Grandpa tries to teach young Oscar how to be an entrepreneur, and this comes as light relief when the sisters have to clean up after a suicide and it is revealed that their mother had committed suicide. But the film is really about resolving your past, regaining self-worth and moving on with your life with confidence. For a film that concentrates on death, Sunshine Cleaning is actually very life-affirming … and hilariously funny.
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