Susan Year Itch

Sunshine Cleaning: Learning about ourselves, pathogens, and each other.

Rating:

My sister is one of the few people in the world* who could conceivably convince me to help her pick up blood and guts and bits of bone from crime scenes (but luckily our collaboration efforts have thus far not exceeded blogging together about an insane magazine). She'd have to try REALLY hard though, and we'd definitely need the "My kid needs money for school and both of us are getting nowhere with our current jobs" motivation that the adorable sisters Rose and Norah Lorkowski have in Megan Holley's first film, Sunshine Cleaning.

Holley's put together a pretty standard, no-frills, "my life hasn't quite turned out like I'd like it to be," boutique flick. It's at times charming and at times distressing, like The Savages, only replace Philip Seymour Hoffman with Amy Adams (which might be a good tactic to lighten up lots of other drab movies as well -- just stick Amy Adams in dark corners to provide a little cheer and you're done!). Everyone is sort of wrily pitiful and no one has it all figured out, but flaws are eventually embraced and family ties strengthened. I don't need to cover any of the plot in more detail.

The standout parts of Sunshine Cleaning are the distinct talents of Adams (who plays the older sister, Rose, who was something of a beauty queen in high school but now struggles to raise her kid alone) and Emily Blunt (younger sister Norah, who I'd describe as an excellent aunt but confusingly costumed). Of course, Alan Arkin is no slouch, and it was somehow comforting to see him in a heartwarming movie so soon after I'd seen Wait Until Dark. Unfortunately, he's a little typecast in his role of doting yet shady grandfather, but it's all right. What family relationship hasn't been done to death?

When I saw Waitress, which comes across similarly, I swore it was moving and fantastic, but I think it took me about a month to forget it existed. Sunshine Cleaning would run that same risk if it weren't for its particularly morbid setting, that, is the world of an aspiring crime scene cleanup crew. They do say "crime scene" in the film a lot, but what they really mean is "gory or disgusting death in fetid living spaces," which is what Rose and Norah seem to end up cleaning most of the time. The job pays well, they hear, so they start from the blood-soaked ground and work their way up, finding that, for Rose at least, cleaning up someone's terrible demise makes her feel a little more complete. Nora has other issues, which you'll discover, that also involve grisly endings that can't be cleaned up so easily, but in the meantime, we get to learn all sorts of things about a niche industry that are fascinating in a disgusting way.

Although, the main character in Waitress found her completeness in pies, which I find fascinating in a delicious way, and I still forgot about it a month later, so we'll see.

*Also, George Clooney.