Sunshine Cleaning

Year: 2009

Genres: Comedy, Crime

Directed by: Christine Jeffs

Written by: Megan Holley

Starring: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Steve Zahn, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Clifton Collins Jr., Jason Spevack

Company: Overture Films | Runtime: 102 minutes | Sunshine Cleaning on IMDB

Once the high school cheerleading captain who dated the quarterback, Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) now finds herself a thirty something single mother working as a maid. Her sister Norah, (Emily Blunt), is still living at home with their dad Joe (Alan Arkin), a salesman with a lifelong history of ill-fated get rich quick schemes. Desperate to get her son into a better school, Rose persuades Norah to go into the crime scene clean-up business with her to make some quick cash. In no time, the girls are up to their elbows in murders, suicides and other. specialized situations. As they climb the ranks in a very dirty job, the sisters find a true respect for one another and the closeness they have always craved finally blossoms. (Overture Films)

Sunshine Cleaning trailer

Olivia Putnal and Krista Soriano

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This is definitely one to make you feel good all over.

T M

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Why was this movie marketed as a darkly quirky comedy when it's a maudlin drama with a few giggles in it. Though the performances are generally good, I found myself getting annoyed at the lack of development of the characters. It seems like they are screwed before the story begins and and will probably end up screwed in the long run. Though there is an implication of hope at the end (after 80 mins of pretty much hopeless despair). when you think about the crap lives they've gotten in the first place, you realize the odds are stacked so far against them there is almost no realistic way out of their respective circles of doom. My rating would of been a five if I had any hint before hand that I was going to see a quirky tragedy with a chuckle or two. One side note. though I found Clifton Collins Jr.'s character to be the warmest and most centered in the movie, I have no idea what dramatic purpose his character really had. That's a shame. because I think they could of done a lot more with him.

J M

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I wasn't disappointed I watched it I just wasn't glad either; I didn't feel satisfied. Adams, Blunt and Arkin are good but there isn't enough plot depth to make the movie, that blame lies with Megan Holley. There are some great moments just too sparse to be really effective. Clifton Collins, Jr. first El Huron, now Winston, wow what a diverse and welcoming actor. While I think the movie did feel real is just wasn't enough.

Joe Neumaier

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Though this well-observed, wry drama is determined to be quirky, its most endearing quality, like that of its heroines, is a willingness to wallow in foul moods and come out the other side.

Michael Phillips

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The director, New Zealander Christine Jeffs ("Sylvia"), loosens the plotting as best she can, letting the interactions breathe. Her work, and the film, is strictly about the performers.

Betsy Sharkey

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A smartly done morality tale that couldn't be more in sync with these troubled times.

Connie Ogle

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Its overall ability to balance humor and drama, attention to emotional detail and a few winning performances outweighs its maudlin tendencies.

Roger Ebert

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The material might have promise as a black comedy, but its attempt to put on a smiling face is unconvincing.

Todd McCarthy

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Director Christine Jeffs, who previously helmed "Rain" and "Sylvia," tries to strike a balance between the yarn's dark currents and offbeat comedy, but the result is often uneasy, with the humor receding as things progress.

caro w

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Phony, trite, saccharine and entirely calculated -- a kitschy waste of time that condescends to working class people and to women. I say this as someone who likes Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, and who sees more independent movies by far than "big" ones. "Sunshine Cleaning" is to a truly original, honest small film as a convenience store "cherry" "pie" is to a homemade one -- 100% artificial ingredients.

Ty Burr

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An intelligent, often touching, sometimes pedestrian drama.

Kelly P

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Why is this film only playing in one theatre in my city (Toronto)? It's one of the better films we've seen in a while. It's touching and funny and real. Kudos to Adams and Blunt who both deliver incredible performances. It was a pleasant surprise - and deserving of a higher score.

Rick Groen

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It's like an elevated form of sitcom acting, which may be inevitable because this movie, and all its quirky/heartfelt kin, are an elevated version of the sitcom itself.

Leif D

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A clever and entertaining film. The characters are believable and likable. Alan Arkin, as always, delivers a superb supporting performance.

Joe Morgenstern

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You'll miss out on some really great stuff if you don't see this surprising movie.

Dana Stevens

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Alan Arkin virtually reprises his Oscar-winning role from "Little Miss Sunshine."

Josh Rosenblatt

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Sunshine Cleaning doesn't exist in relation to the outside world but only to other movies. Its characters aren't human beings but cultural signifiers and indie-movie stereotypes created to survive in the laboratory safety of the festival circuit but never meant to actually walk the streets or talk to strangers.

Lou Lumenick

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This bittersweet comedy is a fine showcase for a pair of distinctive and appealing talents.

A.O. Scott

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All in all, it's a mess, and much as Ms. Blunt pouts, Ms. Adams twinkles, and Mr. Arkin growls, there's nothing they can do to clean it up.

Larry S

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Terrific little film. Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are fabulous!

J.R. Jones

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It's a solid indie effort with plenty of nice character strokes by screenwriter Megan Holley and razor-sharp performances by Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.

Carrie Rickey

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Kudos to Clifton Collins Jr., who appears as a dispenser of cleaning products and common sense.

Shawn Levy

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Alan Arkin is charm itself as the girls' dreamy father. Indeed, director Christine Jeffs coaxes only good work from the whole of her cast.

avery c

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Adams and Blunt are pretty and decent. Arkin is annoying, as always. This movie is tepid and bland like 'Little Miss Sunshine'. Just because something is slow and not about affluent people in NYC or Los Angeles does not make it deep, profound, or moving. Watching this film is like hanging out with boring people in a Starbucks. These slow and/or contemplative films are terrific: Solaris, Before Sunset, L'Avventura, Away From Her, Exotica, The Graduate, Scene From a Marriage. Those are great films. Those films are, by and large, about interesting people going through dark hours. 'Sunshine Cleaning' is about boring people going through tough times. Absolutely nothing interesting was done with the characters' proximity to death. That constitutes a huge failure of narrative and psychological imagination. If I sound pissy, it's because I resent when tedium and vapidity masquerade as depth. That excerpt from Rosenblatt's Austin Chronicle review is dead on.

DWilly

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I came late to this movie because of the stupid metacritic score and my trepidation for movies that traffic in quirkiness, but this is not quirky, it is good and it has real heft and it has two major actors in Amy Adams and Emily Blunt doing their jobs as artists in a story that holds together with something to say. It does hang close to the "Little Miss Sunshine" formula, but that's not a rap, all the good film noir pictures I've seen stuck to their formula, too. I laughed out loud and it brought me to tears a couple of times and I walking out I was glad I saw it-- that's a movie.

Mitch R

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A vapid, artificial movie. Hardly a true moment in this ponderous parade of cliches. And Arkin phones it in.

Mike Mike

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A subtle and poignant film. The acting is supurb and the story is sweet. Might not be enough of a story for those who need every question answered in over-elaborate melodrama, but is just a nice film for everyone else. Great to see a movie that's not overdone. Go see it before it fades from theatres.

Kirk Honeycutt

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Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are two highly attractive, naturally funny actresses on the cusp of stardom so their pairing here as two lost souls is genius.

Michael Sragow

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Amy Adams beguiled audiences in "Junebug" and "Enchanted" and breathed humanity into the histrionic "Doubt." In the eccentric comedy-drama Sunshine Cleaning, set in the least picturesque parts of Albuquerque, N.M., she tops her own proven talent for epiphany.

James Berardinelli

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Perhaps the most compelling reason to see Sunshine Cleaning is the pairing of two of the best and most charismatic young actresses today.

Tatiana O

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Amy Adams does an amazing job in this sweet movie. It makes you want to help out people and be more understanding with people that you do not get. Thumbs up!

Stina Chyn

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Beneath its morbid exterior, Sunshine Cleaning projects a tender portrait of how people help out others and seek a better life for themselves.

Steven K

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Unusual premise, great acting, Alan Arkin, what more could you ask for.

Peter Travers

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This funny and touching movie depends on two can-do actresses to scrub past the biohazard of noxious clichs that threaten to intrude. Adams and Blunt get the job done.

Mick LaSalle

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That Sunshine Cleaning was made by women is best revealed in the filmmakers' willingness to let the story breathe on its own terms, without bringing in anything extraneous, unwelcome and exciting.

Dan Zak

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A boring, choppy dramedy.

Dave E

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Not a comedy, and that's what I was in the mood for. Not bad, but a disappointment for me. Amy Adams gives a one-note, doe-eyed performance. Much better job by Emily Blunt.

Claudia Puig

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Dark humor intersperses with poignant moments. Though the conclusion feels forced, the movie works.

Angie Errigo

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Could have been a little more darkly comic in places but the performances are superb.

Lisa Schwarzbaum

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This peachcolored comedy about a wacky family who shove their sadness into a bulging closet is being marketed as ''from the producers of Little Miss Sunshine'' All that's missing from the formula is a Volkswagen Microbus.

Stephanie Zacharek

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How you'll feel about Sunshine Cleaning probably depends on your tolerance for slender, semi-hip comedic dramas about oddball families grappling with sometimes overwhelming problems.

Robert Wilonsky

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More than a year after its first twirl at Sundance, this Amy AdamsEmily Blunt dramedy finally shrugs its way into theaters, and it feels almost like an afterthought.

Steve M

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Loved it, Amy and Emily Blunt are terrific.

Cammila Albertson

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It's a solid depiction of a relatable story, and it's absolutely modest about all of it, especially stylistically, where things stay remarkably reeled in.

Peter Rainer

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The best thing to come out of Sunshine Cleaning is the confirmation that Adams, one of Hollywood's most delightful comediennes, is also capable of piercing drama.

Nathan Rabin

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There is a time and a place for scruffy independent also-rans like this, and that time and place is the 2 a.m. slot on IFC.