DVD Reviews

Sunshine Cleaning – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Aug 23, 2009, 13:17 GMT

Academy Award® Nominee Amy Adams, Golden Globe® Winner Emily Blunt, and Academy Award Winner®Alan Arkin find an unexpected way to turn their lives around in this “colorful, refreshingly quirky comic drama” (Leah Rozen, People). Desperate to get her son into a better school, single mom Rose (Amy Adams) persuades her slacker sister Norah (Emily Blunt) to join her in the crime scene cleanup business to make some quick cash. With ...more

Anyone who notices ‘From the producers of Little Miss Sunshine’ proudly displayed over the equally sunny title ‘Sunshine Cleaning’ will know exactly what their in for here: a quirky, festival-brewed dramedy that coasts on self-conscious realism. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt do their part but it’s a little been there, done that for me.

Director Christine Jeffs who is coming off of ‘Rain’ and ‘Sylvia’ probably won’t make the transition to mainstream here with an uncomfortable tone and juggling of subplots presented by Megan Holly’s debut script. An idea of haphazard sisters battling their various woes through a crime-scene cleanup business is good, but its execution ultimately has little to say despite overeager sentimental button-pushing.

However, fans of ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ will automatically feel comfortable with the same struggling Albuquerque setting and Alan Arkin pretty much reprising his Oscar-winning role, if on a somewhat muted scale.

We follow two struggling sisters, one a maid, Rose (Amy Adams) who wishes for better things and is trying to make good on her once promising head-cheerleader days; and partying, screw-up Norah (Blunt) who lives with their dad Joe (Arkin) and is constantly getting fired from meaningless jobs.

When Rose’s lover Mac (Steve Zahn), her former QB boyfriend who is now married, suggests that there is money to be made in the crime-scene cleanup business, Rose enlists her sister to help out and pretty soon their taking home some considerable cash scrubbing blood from the floors.

Soon, they have started their own business, the titular ‘Sunshine Cleaning’ and, well, that’s pretty much it.

Sure, there’s subplots a’ plenty with Rose having a budding relationship with a one-armed cleaner supplies/model shop owner (deftly played by Clifton Collins Jr.), Nora feeling the weight of losing her mom at a young age and Joe trying and failing at various financial schemes but it all doesn’t add up to much.

That it’s successful at all is due to the considerable screen charm of its two up-and-coming big-time actresses Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.

Amy Adams, so good in “Junebug’, gets to play a somewhat normal role here after the goofiness of ‘Enchanted’ and the staunch seriousness of ‘Doubt’ and she excels at walking that fine line between despair and happiness. Emily Blunt also does a fine job in the second-string role although it’s hard to imagine either of these two beauties having many problems in the romance department.

The 1080p AVC encode looks good and does a serviceable job presenting an indie, muted color scheme. A Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio track does a nice job presenting the low-key dialogue and music.

Special Features include an audio commentary from producer Glenn Williamson and writer Megan Holley that’s a mostly low-key affair.

A eleven-minute featurette ‘Sunshine Cleaning: A Fresh Look at a Dirty Business’ takes a look at the routine of the real dirty business of crime-scene cleanup with a few actual cleaning ladies chiming in on how the film handles their business. Trailers and BD-Live connectivity round out the extras.

The film might be worth a rental for ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ fans as an able cast does a nice job but for the casual curious, I could safely recommend passing. It’s got decent BD specs but this one was mostly ho-hum for me.