Sunshine Cleaning

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It's a business lie, not a life lie. It's not the same thing.
There's not a lot that I am good at. But I'm good at getting guys to want me. Not date me, or marry me, but want me.

Whimsical is a word I seldom use to describe a movie, when I do, "Sunshine Cleaning" is probable the best example so far this year. Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) finds herself trying to raise her son Oscar (Jason Spevack) while also helping to support her unreliable sister Norah (Emily Blunt) while working a mundane job as a maid. Once the head cheerleader in school with plenty of prospects, she was the quarterbacks girlfriend, who is now a police detective working homicide. One day after a man commits suicide in a sports store, Mac (Steve Zahn) tells Rose that she should consider getting into that field, it pays a lot of money for a little work. When Oscar is expelled from public school, Rose calls mac and asks him to see if he can help her get started as a bio-hazard crime-scene cleaner in order to help pay for a private education for Oscar. Bringing Norah on to help her in what she hopes will be a steadily growing business, Rose begins to think that this is just what she needs for herself and her son. Rose asks her father Joe (Alan Arkin) to watch Oscar while she and Norah go to their first crime scene, it is a small one, but the house was of an older woman who was a shut in. The smell alone was almost enough to get both girls to quit, but needing the money they muscle through it. Norah finds a purse with ID's in it and wonders if the woman's daughter would like to know about her mother's death, she keeps the ID's and some pictures and is determined to pass them on. Rose and Mac, who is married and has a child of his own continue to meet in seedy hotel rooms for sex, Rose is getting jobs now and decides that she needs to learn about the disposal of the materials they remove from the scenes. The decide that they need real supplies and visit a store where Winston (Clifton Collins Jr.) takes a liking to Rose and helps her out with information that will help her, he gives her books on what she should be doing with the items with blood on them, as well as information about classes in blood born pathogens. As Rose is doing this, Joe is taking Oscar all over the city, Joe has get rich quick schemes that he finds Oscar has a knack for. At the scene of a suicide Rose and Norah come upon the wife of the victim sitting outside, Rose comforts her in a very touching scene, one that shows the depth of Amy Adams talent. Rose has an invitation to a baby shower of an old classmate and wants to go, just to show herself that she can be a part of the crowd again, on the day of the shower, Joe is trying to get rid of the result of one of his schemes and has no time to watch Oscar, and a call has come in that requires Norah to work alone, in a bind Rose takes Oscar to the store operated by Winston, asking him to watch her son while she goes to the shower, Norah arrives at the home of the latest crime scene and working alone is frightened by a small cat, chasing the cat outside she knocks over a small candle that she had lit to help eliminate the smell, she burns the house down. When Rose arrives at the scene, she is outraged to find the house engulfed in flames and Norah sitting in the car. Norah had taken the ID's found at the first scene and made contact with the woman's daughter, Lynn (Mary Lynn Rajskub) touches Norah in several ways, none that were expected, and when Norah finally gets the nerve together to tell Lynn what she is trying to do, Lynn gets mad, saying her mother was nothing but a drunk, and that Lynn wanted Norah to stay away from now on. After the house is burnt down Rose has no option but to sell their equipment back to Winston and get out of the business all together. At a birthday party for Oscar, Rose and Norah have that little heart to heart talk that is expected in family movies today, but here it tells more about their childhood trauma and its effects then if we had been a witness to it as it happened. The girls as young children found their mother after she had committed suicide in the families bathroom. This scared the girls deeper then they imagined, and as they grew up, it had an impact on their lives. The end has Joe coming up with another get rich quick schemes, one that you can see working. This is a touching family film, one you can share with everyone.

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