Worth the price of admission, or a waste of time?
Brian McKechnie and
Suzanne Ellis offer you their take on the latest movies hitting screens. Read their reviews every Friday, exclusively on
CityNews.ca.
Let Brian and Suzanne know what you think of
His Take/Her Take via email at
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SUNSHINE CLEANING
Rated R
Cast: Amy Adams, Alan Arkin, Emily Blunt, Steve Zahn
Directed by: Christine Jeffs
Official Site
IMDb
A single mom (Adams) starts a crime scene cleaning business with her slacker sister (Blunt) in order to raise money to send her son to private school.
Brian's Take
**** out of 5 stars
The premise of two sisters (Amy Adams and Emily Blunt) opening a crime scene cleaning company sounds more like a thriller than a comedy/drama (1996's
Curdled
comes to mind). Fortunately the film is built around the relationships Adams and Blunt have more than the blood they clean - and that's what makes
Sunshine Cleaning work so well.
Adams and Blunt are two of the most versatile actresses working today. The contrast of watching them struggle with their own problems (Blunt's Norah is a pot-smoking free bird who can't keep a job and Adams' Rose is a single mom having an affair with a married man) to seeing them bickering like normal sisters while attempting to clean a crime scene is mesmerizing. I'd be surprised if they don't both get nominated for a few awards later this year. Sadly Alan Arkin (who plays Rose and Norah's father) turns in pretty much the same role he had in
Little Miss Sunshine (which has people unfairly lumping the two films together when they couldn't be further apart).
My one big complaint is that a lot is left unanswered. This could be done on purpose to get people to create their own version of the story (like the briefcase in
Pulp Fiction). Some of the plot holes are inexcusable though and characters disappearing with no explanation is just sloppy writing.
Flaws aside
Sunshine Cleaning is a solid film that I'd consider one the best of the year so far.
Suzanne's Take
*** out of 5 stars
Sunshine Cleaning is an okay movie made markedly better for two reasons: Amy Adams and Emily Blunt. These are two of my favourite actresses at the moment and they both deliver fine performances in the latest film from New Zealand director Christine Jeffs, who previously directed
Sylvia in 2003.
Adams and Blunt convincingly play sisters Rose and Norah Lorkowski. Rose (Adams) is a single mom having an affair with her now-married high school sweetheart (Steve Zahn). Norah (Blunt) is her layabout younger sister, still living with their father (Alan Arkin). Rose and Norah start up a crime scene cleanup business in order to raise enough money to send Rose's son Oscar to a special-needs school.
Between the title, the shared producers, the cube van standing in for the VW bus, and the casting of Alan Arkin in a virtually identical role, comparisons to
Little Miss Sunshine are inevitable. But this is largely a movie about two couldn't-be-more-different sisters and how a shared traumatic experience from childhood has shaped them into who they are and how they relate to each other. This to me was the heart of the story, and what makes it worth watching. Adams and Blunt are completely believable in their roles and it's easy to imagine them as being related -- not sure if this is simply due to their acting chops or great casting.
The story and script were hit-and-miss. I felt writer Megan Holley included some lovely moments between Rose and Norah, and a few other heartbreaking scenes including one with an elderly woman whose husband has just died. But there were also a number of characters who either didn't belong in the film, or whose story arcs weren't wrapped up as well as they could have been. Possibly an editing problem, but it's hard to say.
Had
Sunshine Cleaning focused more on the relationship between Rose and Norah, and the dynamic Adams and Blunt, this might have been an excellent film. Instead it's, well, a bit untidy.
ALSO OPENING THIS WEEK:
Hank and Mike,
The Haunting in Connecticut,
12 Rounds,
Before Tomorrow
RECENT HIS TAKE/HER TAKE REVIEWS
Duplicity
Polytechnique
Last House on the Left (2009)
Watchmen
Top image: Amy Adams as Rose. Courtesy E1 Entertainment.
Middle image: Amy Adams and Emily Blunt cleaning up a crime scene. Courtesy E1 Entertainment