Find out the plot of Sunshine Cleaning by reading the movie summary by Michael The Moviegoer.
SUNSHINE CLEANING = ****
“I Clean Dead People”
This movie opens with a man walking into a gun shop and asking to see a shotgun. He then puts the gun under his chin and blows his own head off. It sets the right tone for where this film is headed, but it doesn’t match Fox Searchlight’s feel-good marketing campaign which might give audiences the wrong expectations for this surprisingly excellent piece of indie filmmaking.
I went into this movie thinking these girls who do suicide and crime scene clean-up jobs (played beautifully by Amy Adams and Emily Blunt) would somehow get caught up in one of the crimes they’re cleaning up. I thought they might find a piece of evidence and then have bad guys chasing them throughout the film. Thankfully, this is not that film.
Instead, “Sunshine Cleaning” is a thoughtful and heartfelt drama about life and death, love and loss, and living dysfunctional lives. Adams and Blunt play sisters struggling to move on past the suicide of their mother. Yes, I have now mentioned the word “suicide” twice in my review of “Sunshine Cleaning”. So don’t be fooled by the way this film is being marketed. The movie is much deeper than your standard Hollywood dumb comedy. And refreshingly so.
Oscar-winner Alan Arkin plays the girls’ father and Emily Blunt does her best work since “The Devil Wears Prada”. But why do people still perceive Amy Adams as a “newcomer”? She already has 2 Oscar nominations (for “Junebug” and “Doubt”). Her heartbreaking work here as a single mom running her crime scene clean-up company is evidence that Adams could stand on an empty stage and recite the phone book and probably be nominated for that.
I love this movie. And even with it’s intentionally misleading title I say let the sunshine in and see it.
DVD Watch: How does a completely unknown actress in a low budget, little seen, barely released indie film with no big-name stars come away with an Oscar nomination? Watch “Junebug” to see how Amy Adams did it.
Michael The Moviegoer
