Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Reviewed August 2010Though you know how the story is going to turn out, it was made captivating by fantastic performances by ever too reliable Amy Adams and fast shining Emily Blunt. I have seen references to Little Miss Sunshine by some of the critics, what's the relation? Checked the writer and director's past movies doesn't include it. I wonder at this this because I thought it felt like Little Miss Sunshine at some level before reading the references. It's a story of a positive minded slightly dysfunctional family who are going through some tough times for bad choices made in the past. The screenplay and conclusion are conventional and made to the writer's comfort. Emily Blunt has a terrific voice diction, hope to see her in some good animated character. The character Oscar is charming and Grampa is the same as in Little Miss Sunshine. Though this movie does not break any ground, I couldn't find anything that I did not like in it.

One of the best touching movie I had seen recently....Good Casting (One being my fav. Amy Adams) and good story with a reason behind what is being done as a business...Screenplay was very perfect and it never makes us feel boring or dragging...Very interesting plot taken in a very interesting way...There are so many scenes which will make you feel the love of someone who is not with you...it can be anyone whom you loved the most....Seriously if someone is living alone, it will make them cry and if someone has lost their mom, they cant avoid their eyes from becoming wet...Very nice movie and I expect such good movies from Hollywood...Good Job Team!

The overwhelming feeling of finally getting to watch an Indie that I would otherwise have been unable to, or have had to watch in a censored form (the way I watched the ripped-apart version of 'Little Miss Sunshine'), far outweighed my actual thoughts in terms of how the movie actually affected me/what I thought of the effort. At the time it released, when I got to watch it unfettered with a like-minded audience in one of my favorite Indie cinemas, all I could think about was that I had the opportunity to watch 2 beautiful actresses, a very quirky character actor (make that two - Alan Arkin, along with Steve Zahn) and some dark humor, a kinda staple for non-mainstream comedy.In hindsight though, I feel that there was no narrative heft to it all. The story was just about there, apparently inspired by something the makers heard on NPR and concocting a tale around it, but there's nothing 'real' or 'heavy' to feel inspired by, or even moved by. The players are all great without exception, so it's perhaps in the material itself, that smacked of being more self-congratulatory I-know-how-this-will-go-down kinda motif that served only to inspire the makers and perhaps the payers that signed on, but not anyone else, not specifically the audience that paid to watch this. Something got lost in translation too, maybe? 'Sylvia' was not all that great a pedigree of the director, and I'm not sure I'm in a minority on that thought.Plot-wise, the contrivance that drives the lead to get into the business she does (Zahn's character just saying that she needs to get into it, because it's just ...there) is the hook that the entire plot takes off on, and has to be one of the weakest rationales ever to grace an Indie screen in years. Lazy screen writing, or a distinct lack of 'inspiration'. Adams' need to 'reach out' to certain characters also, to me, rang false every time she tried, and to give the film-makers the benefit of doubt, perhaps they willfully played it that way to depict Adams' character's shallowness (or maybe, social awkwardness? or maybe, genuine uncertainty, considering the situation all of those times) in this milieu. If that's the case, I have no problem with it. But if that was not, then what were they thinking? They needed us, the audience, squarely in her corner, and they lost us (most of us, anyway) every time.Not to say this movie was bad. Far from it, actually. It was just sad that this lightweight drama drew such a cast of talented performers. They, like the audience, deserved better. This one seems as lightweight as the other Indie with Zahn, 'Management'.Arkin has a lengthier character to play here than in 'Little Miss Sunshine', and the movie is all the better for it. In spite of that, this one kinda doesn't rise to the level I think (now) that it could have.Conclusively, regardless of the fact that this seems a misfire of sorts in hindsight, the fact remains that I immensely enjoyed it when I was lucky enough to watch it.

Is there, something that me, as a bloke, is missing here? It was directed by a woman. It was written by a woman. All the complimentary reviews on the box are from female publications. Perhaps the fact that while viewing it, feeling as bored and unfulfilled as I did, is down to an absence of estrogen in my system.I like to think not. I've seen plenty of so-called 'chick flicks' in my time which I've thoroughly enjoyed. Everything here though, from the one-armed love interest, to the disabled kid who's wiser than his peers, if straight out of screen writing classes 101. I've seen it all before, and done considerably better too.Worst still, nothing really happens. There's some half-baked nonsense about sisters coping with their mother's suicide and loser of a father, as well as extra marital affairs and taunts from old classmates. None of this adds up to anything interesting, and you just end up staring at the screen, while the stock characters and their tedious conversations wash over you.There is the germ of a good idea here. Who wouldn't want to see what cleaning up after a crime scene entails? These parts are the best in the movie, and witnessing the various fluids on the floor and our amateur Mrs Mops's reaction to them provides for a few sick laughs. But with the rest of the unoriginal tripe that's bundled along with it, make the movie impossible to recommend. 4/10