The concept of two sexy young women scrubbing the brain fragments off of a bathroom floor might sound to you like some niche Japanese Manga porn. Unfortunately it’s only another dysfunctional family indie drama.
Sunshine Cleaning has the indie genre down pat; colourful titles, top actors, interesting backdrop and troubled characters. In fact, it is walking the line so straight that it borders on the mundane. It works hard to be the next indie breakthrough like its predecessor Little Miss Sunshine, but the story doesn’t have as much to do.
Amy Adams is as likeable as ever and here she is playing Rose Lorkowski, a downtrodden single mum who is struggling to make ends meet as a cleaner. A character with zero self-esteem or vocational outlook, she is convinced that the world of crime scene cleaning is her way to fortune.
Obviously this is a messy job and she soon finds herself knee deep in all sorts of excrement. She is helped along the way by her sister Norah played by Emily Blunt. Here, the wayward sister, she lives at home with their father Joe (Alan Arkin) whose own business ventures are far from successful.
What we get is fairly ‘amusing’ situations, but because they all pretty much take place in the same setting, it never really takes off and – as you would expect – there is minimal comedy to be had from the stains left from the dead. All the cast do very well in their roles, particularly Arkin, but he is pretty much playing the same character he played in Little Miss Sunshine.
What it really seems to be doing is trying too hard; each character has an issue (all pretty much stemming from the same place) but they all have their own little moments of clarity. Sometimes it works and sometimes it comes across as excessively quirky (notably Norah under the train rails) but it always fails to click.
Neither the characters nor the surroundings come across as particularly easy to relate to. Adams always has the ability to convince, but it’s hard to care about the most popular girl in school who grew up to be a loser.
The film is just adequate, never fully taking off but not too dull either. It’s a small victory that anyone managed to make a film about cleaning up dead people that’s even remotely amusing. Be warned, though, as this is not the next big indie hit but instead is a film coasting on the merits of predecessors.
The DVD release packs in minimal extras but a so-so commentary from the writer and producer and a strange behind the scenes documentary about real-life crime scene cleaners. The documentary at least proves that the film is 100% more entertaining to people in the business, if that can be taken as a recommendation.
Hecklerspray Rating: 3/5
Follow hecklerspray on Twitter
