Sunshine Cleaning

Release Date (UK) - 26 June 2009

Certificate (UK) - 15

Country - USA

Director - Chrisitne Jeffs

Runtime - 91 mins

Starring - Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin

Rose (Amy Adams) is a struggling single parent who sacrificed a career when she fell pregnant as a teenager. The father Mac (Steve Zahn) chose another girl over her but their relationship has carried on over the years as an illicit affair. Struggling to make ends meet as a house cleaner Rose falls into cleaning up after crime scenes instead (which is much more highly paid due to the nature of the work) and starts her own business enlisting her chaotic sister Norah (Emily Blunt).

There are plenty of comic moments, the best coming from Rose and Norah's fathers Joe (Alan Arkin) schemes to raise money of his own buying and selling everything from popcorn to shrimp. The film is simply describable as 'pleasant' but it does become predictable with its almost stereotypical 'quirky' characters. Indeed Alan Arkin plays almost the same character as in Little Miss Sunshine so the film feels like it is coming off as a quick cheap attempt to make some money with the same characters and quirkiness. There is a message buried inside the plot somewhere about cleaning up peoples lives and how Rose must clean up her own which she eventually does by ending her affair with Mac, and Norah also decides to go live her life as well at the end.

Although this falls into the American Independent film category personally I still cant label a film with stars a independent and without the billing of Blunt and Adams I don't think this film would have gotten anywhere least of all outside America as although there are plenty of quirks and laughs there are no particularly deep life observations and messages here, and if it had been any longer then it would have really been stretching the story. Worth watching when it gets to TV for a relaxing film but not worth the trip to the cinema