Fun at Work: Sunshine Cleaning

Sunshine Cleaning is a goofy movie but it’s fun to watch. Amy Adams plays a former high school hot shot who finds herself in a dead end job with a dead end romance, trying to raise a troubled child on a shoestring budget. Humiliated by her situation – especially when she runs into better off high school cronies – she decides to reinvent herself and comes up with the idea of crime scene cleanups. With little real knowledge of what her new career entails, she jumps in, dragging her deadbeat little sister (Emily Blunt) along to help her.

There are many interesting directions this plot line could take and Sunshine Cleaning pretty much misses all of them. What’s left is not always that interesting; in fact some of the big developments of the story are pretty silly. But Emily Blunt and Any Adams are so engaging it doesn’t matter. This is lighthearted entertainment with a little bit of an edge, a welcome shift from the dark themes of a lot of recent releases (Watchmen, anyone?). Wonderful supporting performances from Mary Lynn Rajskub (“Chloe” if you’re a 24 fan) and Clifton Collins, best known as the killer Truman Capote fancied in Capote. The kid (Jason Spevack) is good too, toeing a fine line between brattiness and innocence. Nominated for the Grand Jury prize at Sundance. Rated R for a handful of stomach turning moments connected to the whole crime scene cleanup thing (there is no real gore in this picture) and some sex and drugs. Currently in very limited release, opening a little wider on March 20.