"Sunshine Cleaning" Film Review

Cast

Amy Adams
Emily Blunt
Alan Arkin
Steve Zahn

Director

Christine Jeffs

Plot

Once the high school cheerleading captain who dated the quarterback, Rose Lorkowski now finds herself a thirty-something single mother working as a maid. Her sister Norah, is still living at home with their dad Joe, a salesman with a lifelong history of ill-fated get rich quick schemes. Desperate to get her son into a better school, Rose persuades Norah to go into the crime scene clean-up business with her to make some quick cash. In no time, the girls are up to their elbows in murders, suicides and other… specialised situations.

Review

What do you get when you cross murder with cleaning? No, it’s not the punch line of a joke, it’s the quirky business idea of the Lorkowski sisters. This wacky dramatic comedy revolves around the lives of a driven single mother and her slacker sister as they try to change their circumstances for the better. Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams), ex cheerleader and 30-something single mother finds herself working as a maid to put her somewhat eccentric son through school, while sister Norah (Emily Blunt) is still living at home with her father (Alan Arkin) – a salesman with a reputation for hair brain schemes.

When Rose gets a tip off from her married lover that there is money to be made in crime scene clean ups, she doesn’t see that it can be much different to the degrading job she all ready does. With the help of Norah, the girls quickly find themselves up to their knees in blood and guts or ‘specialised situations’ as it’s known in the trade. A trade the girls learn quite quickly and as their business stars to blossom so does the love and respect for each other that they have always craved. This off the wall business helps the sisters open the door to the past with the chance to clear out the skeletons and rediscover life, love and family values in the most unconventional way.

Amy Adams and Emily Blunt play the Lorkowski sisters, two actresses at the top of their game and showing off their talents in the brightest of lights here. Adams’ physical appearance belies the depth and understanding beneath, and Blunt ( My Summer of Love, The Devil wears Prada, The Young Victoria) is so convincing as the heartbreakingly dysfunctional Norah, she eats up the dialogue with such inner drive that she steals her scenes no matter who she’s sharing the screen with. Adams (Doubt, Night at the Museum 2, Miss Pettigrew’s Day Off) though, is the ideal sparring partner. The chemistry between them is palpable. Norah’s free spirit attitude is the perfect antithesis of Rose’s need to be accepted.

Directed by Christine Jeffs (Sylvia), this is the first script from writer Megan Holley. Holley heard a news piece on the radio about the crime scene clean up industry and decided she had found the subject for her script. Her very original voice is both heartfelt, quirky and real. She understands the relationship between sisters - the love/ hate pull the can only occur with family.

This really is a story about family - the good times, the bad times and those you would rather sweep under the rug. It shows that one person’s problems can be another blessing or at least a way of learning what’s important in life.

Trudi Camilleri




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