Sunshine Cleaning
Reviewer: Analiese Jackson
Rating: 5/5
Release Date: 11th June
Beautifully scripted and executed with a perfectly chosen cast, Sunshine Cleaning is the type of film that restores both my faith in humanity and in the film industry. Directed by New Zealander Christine Jeffs and produced by the same team that brought us Little Miss Sunshine(Big Beach Productions), Sunshine Cleaning is a little darker than Little Miss Sunshine but it still has plenty of laughs that will appeal to people over a wide spectrum of theatrical tastes
Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) is a former cheerleader who has found that the best days of her life are long behind her. Working as a maid for wealthy families in Albuquerque, Rose struggles to manage raising her 8 year old misfit son Oscar (Jason Spevack) and her delinquent younger sister, Norah (Emily Blunt). In a desperate attempt to enrol her son into a private school (none of the public ones will take him) Rose convinces Norah to help her establish Sunshine Cleaning, a biohazard removal company which cleans up after the removal of bodies at crime scenes. Slowly, both Rose and Norah find themselves cleaning up the messes both left at the crime scenes they come across and those that are left in their own lives.
The film also has a stellar supporting cast including, most notably, Alan Arkin (the grandfather from Little Miss Sunshine) as Mr Lorkowski, an entrepreneur who is more than a little down on his luck and Clifton Collins Jr, who is most well known for his portrayal of murderer Perry Smith in the film Capote as Winston, the owner of the local biohazard cleaning supplies store.
It’s not often that I award any film five out of five; normally, I’d have a bit of a whinge about the casting choices, the cinematography or the length. But I honestly can’t think of anything to fault this movie on. The time just flew past and it left me wanting to see far more than the brief insight into the lives of the Lorkowski family that we are offered during the film. You must Must MUST see this film.