Sunshine Cleaning DVD: Review By Dodd

It is difficult for me to gauge these days what is really a genuine film festival treasure. There was once a boom in independent cinema because movies truly made on a shoestring budget or without support from a studio would be discovered and brought to the attention of the masses. Does anyone remember sex, lies, and videotape, or Reservoir Dogs? It would seem that the studios have caught on and turned Sundance into an event that positions intentionally "indie" movies in front of investors. These are movies picked up and Sundance that seem as if they could have just as easily been released by a studio without that whole film festival step in the middle. I realize that the filmmakers of Little Miss Sunshine swear left and right that the film is truly independent, but the star-studded cast and high film making quality still leave me feeling skeptical. The next "independent" movie in line recently was Sunshine Cleaning (another film with "sunshine in the title. Coincidence?), which has made its way to DVD.

The dark comedy stars Amy Adams as a house cleaner named Rose. She is a single mother who was once a popular cheerleader, but instead spends her miserable days fawning over her married high school sweetheart (Steve Zahn), with whom she carries on a meaningless affair. She has a troubled sister named Norah (Emily Blunt) who acts like a jilted teenage goth girl that never escaped the grudges of her youth. Norah is quirky and angry because---well---this is an indie flick. They also have an elderly father (Alan Arkin) who tries to think up terrible get-rich-quick schemes (eg. selling tubs of shrimp door-to-door). Rose also has an adolescent son Oscar (Jason Spevack) who is quiet, smart, and gets in trouble for odd behavior at school.

Rose's lover makes the suggestion that with her cleaning skill she could earn much more income cleaning up crime scenes. She takes up this offer and begins advertising her new business, Sunshine Cleaning. She and Norah go from one sloppy crime scene to another to polish up blood and pieces of brain while foolishly committing faux pas along the way such as chucking bloody mattresses in public dumpsters. However the two of them learn that such quick cash is not so easy, and they learn profound lessons about themselves and each other along the way.....blah blah blah.

Perhaps it is obvious that I did not care for Sunshine Cleaning. The independent film has become more of a genre rather than a term representing how much effort and money is put into a project. I was watching this movie and couldn't help but point out one cliche after another. It does not feel like this film is trying to break any boundaries. Instead it feels like the filmmakers decided that forcefully quirky characters is what indie fans expect and will therefore get. Even with this small problem aside, the film itself is constructed very poorly. I am simply guessing that the filmmakers have a lot of footage that was left on the cutting room floor. This movie is full of relationships and subplots that begin, but never carry through to the very end. Norah becomes obsessed with the daughter of a suicide victim, but we never get the full reason. Meanwhile character actors such as Eric Christian Olsen and Kevin Chapman are prominently featured in the opening credits, but appear in the movie for one minute or less. I am more than willing to bet there is a far superior director's cut of this somewhere waiting to be seen.

The DVD has one featurette that takes a unique angle. Two women who run an actual biohazard removal business pick the movie apart. They cringe at the main characters' mistakes and give a tour of their supply van. The film also contains a commentary track from writer Megan Holley and producer Glenn Williamson. Some of the facts are interesting, but their monotone voices are enough to put one to sleep.

Widescreen. Not saying it is a requirement, but I do not look at this film's aesthetic and think it was made on a shoestring budget.

5.1 Surround. The soundtrack to the film is very upbeat which adds nice irony to the morbid subject matter of gore removal.

The film is in a standard DVD case with a decorative sleeve. The front cover is the poster art of Adams and Blunt carrying the film's title that is substituting a bloody mattress.

Sunshine Cleaning is a movie that is forcefully eccentric and not cohesive as a whole. It is only an hour and a half, and it feels like there is a lot missing from the picture. The movie ends with a lot of open ends, and it didn't feel like an intentional, artistic choice by the filmmakers. I didn't understand these characters nor did I quite grasp why they are the way that they are. But since it is an "indie" movie, I suppose the answer to my confusion is "just because".

dodd@movieweb.com