We were attracted to watch a comedy drama called Sunshine Cleaning, as it stars 2 of our favourite actresses at present; Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
A former cheerleading captain who dated the quarterback at high school, Rose (Adams), now finds herself a 30-something single mother, struggling to make ends meet, working as a maid and cleaner.
She has a sister, Norah (Blunt), who is an underachiever and has just lost her latest job as a waitress. She still lives at home with their dad, Joe (Alan Arkin) who has a habit of investing in ‘get-rich-quick’ schemes that don’t go anywhere so neither been the best support to her.
Rose finds that her life needs to change fast when her son Oscar (Jason Spevack) is put on medication and needs to be boarded at a school that can help him, which she can not afford from her current wage.
Rose asks her ex-boyfriend, Mac (Steve Zahn) from her high school, who she is now seeing again, despite him being married, for advice. From his connections with the police, he recommends a crime scene cleanup job and gets her the job, which she takes on with Norah.
At first, it is clear the 2 could be out of their depths, with the many regulations involved with biohazard cleaning and dealing with waste especially. The 2 get a lot of help and the necessary tools to do the job from Winston (Clifton Collins Jr) a one-armed shop owner that sells the various cleaning materials needed for a job of this nature.
We follow how the business grows and how Rose and Mac’s relationship unfolds, will he leave his wife etc. We also see Norah form a relationship with Lynn (Mary Lynn Rajskub, who you may know as Chloe from TV hit 24) and we also see Joe’s latest start-up investment to sell shrimp independently.
Their business looks to get a major breakthrough when the Sunshine Cleaners get offered a lucrative job for an insurance company but a storyline which sees Rose wanting to attend a baby shower held by Heather (Amy Redford) Mac’s pregnant wife.
This is in part because Heather mocks Rose’s post high school life. Rose wants to show them that she had made a name for herself with her cleaning firm. To attend the shower, would mean turning down the lucrative insurance job unless she can trust the unreliable Norah to star work on it without her.
Can Norah make the business a success or will it be a disaster? Can the 2 girls form solid relationships and will Joe make a success of his shrimp business? This is a film we think is worth a watch to find out, especially a fan of these quirky comedies, the likes of Little Miss Sunshine and Juno etc
Adams, as always, is simply outstanding but she is aided by a great cast, Blunt and Alda in particular. It is a shame that the film director Christine Jeffs and writer Megan Holley have not done more films, as this showed a lot of potential for other great films.
Being a 2008 film we sourced the film fairly cheaply and if a fan of either actress we think it is worth watching.
You can find the trailer here:
You can find the film at Amazon here:
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