Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

It is not only a funny movie, but it allows a great amount of joy for anyone who watches it.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Oscar nominee Amy Adams plays Rose Lorkowski, a single mother of Oscar. She works as a cleaning lady but aspires to be a Realtor. Her married boyfriend (Steve Zahn) helps get her into crime scene cleaning business with her sister Norah (Emily Blunt). Their father is played by the wonderful Oscar winner Alan Arkin. Norah befriends Lynn in a weird way. I felt that story was unfinished. Norah has her own mother issues. Lynn's mother died in a trailer. The sisters cleaning it up and Norah comes across Lynn's pictures and tries to give it to her but refuses to accept it. I enjoy Adams, Blunt, and Arkin as a family I this film. They are believable in their roles. Amy Adams is a great actress of a wide range and enjoy her in anything. This gem of a film was shot in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Jason Spevack is terrific as Oscar. But I do have issues with Rose's parenting skills, she would rather send him to private school rather than deal with disciplinary issues. Some parents like Rose are hesitant to put their children on medication for whatever reason or not accept their diagnosis. Whatever Oscar has, I didn't understand why she pulled him out of school for so long. If a child like Oscar needs special education, he is entitled to it.

The overwhelming feeling of finally getting to watch an Indie that I would otherwise have been unable to, or have had to watch in a censored form (the way I watched the ripped-apart version of 'Little Miss Sunshine'), far outweighed my actual thoughts in terms of how the movie actually affected me/what I thought of the effort. At the time it released, when I got to watch it unfettered with a like-minded audience in one of my favorite Indie cinemas, all I could think about was that I had the opportunity to watch 2 beautiful actresses, a very quirky character actor (make that two - Alan Arkin, along with Steve Zahn) and some dark humor, a kinda staple for non-mainstream comedy.In hindsight though, I feel that there was no narrative heft to it all. The story was just about there, apparently inspired by something the makers heard on NPR and concocting a tale around it, but there's nothing 'real' or 'heavy' to feel inspired by, or even moved by. The players are all great without exception, so it's perhaps in the material itself, that smacked of being more self-congratulatory I-know-how-this-will-go-down kinda motif that served only to inspire the makers and perhaps the payers that signed on, but not anyone else, not specifically the audience that paid to watch this. Something got lost in translation too, maybe? 'Sylvia' was not all that great a pedigree of the director, and I'm not sure I'm in a minority on that thought.Plot-wise, the contrivance that drives the lead to get into the business she does (Zahn's character just saying that she needs to get into it, because it's just ...there) is the hook that the entire plot takes off on, and has to be one of the weakest rationales ever to grace an Indie screen in years. Lazy screen writing, or a distinct lack of 'inspiration'. Adams' need to 'reach out' to certain characters also, to me, rang false every time she tried, and to give the film-makers the benefit of doubt, perhaps they willfully played it that way to depict Adams' character's shallowness (or maybe, social awkwardness? or maybe, genuine uncertainty, considering the situation all of those times) in this milieu. If that's the case, I have no problem with it. But if that was not, then what were they thinking? They needed us, the audience, squarely in her corner, and they lost us (most of us, anyway) every time.Not to say this movie was bad. Far from it, actually. It was just sad that this lightweight drama drew such a cast of talented performers. They, like the audience, deserved better. This one seems as lightweight as the other Indie with Zahn, 'Management'.Arkin has a lengthier character to play here than in 'Little Miss Sunshine', and the movie is all the better for it. In spite of that, this one kinda doesn't rise to the level I think (now) that it could have.Conclusively, regardless of the fact that this seems a misfire of sorts in hindsight, the fact remains that I immensely enjoyed it when I was lucky enough to watch it.

It ends too quickly... What happens with Winston? What happens with Nora? Another loose end was Nora's acquaintance that worked at the blood bank. It seemed like that relationship ended all too suddenly.It would have been nice to see Rose surpass her high school classmates, especially the classmates at the baby shower that appeared to look down on her after she told them she cleaned up biohazards. I like the fact that Rose was able to turn her life around. But after the disaster, she seemed to give up. I wish she would have persevered. But luckily Dad helped and it turns out that everything would be OK. And it seemed like the son turned out OK as well since he went to a new private school and seemed to be happy.

Similar to Little Miss Sunshine, this indie flick is a likable film with plenty of meaningful moments to savour on... all to come to a disappointment in the end.The film failed to cover the plot in a way by leaving holes and patches somewhere, where it could have strive to be as wholesome as possible. Many details critical towards the character developments are not explained or totally missing. It may be possible that it is the intention to leave the viewer more room for interpretation, however once too many details are left out, it only becomes distracting and serves to rob off the viewer's focus on what was going on.For example, who is the father of the child? How did the main character ended up with a life living by hand-to-mouth but still able to maintain her..err..relationship with a certain someone? Where is the certain reconciliation that was missing?