50x3: Sunshine Cleaning (A-1)

The first movie that was selected for me came from Aimee's list. A movie I had been wanting to see for awhile now and finally got a chance to see.

Sunshine Cleaning stars two ladies that I have really started to enjoy, Amy Adams as Rose and Emily Blunt as Norah.

The pair are both sisters in what appears to be a small town. Rose was a popular high school student, the head cheerleader who was dating the popular bot in school.

Her present, however, is not as spectacular as her past. Rose is struggling to make ends meet as a cleaner with a son, Oscar (Jason Spevack). She is also still pretty much in love with her former boyfriend from high school, Mac (Steve Zahn), who just happens to be married with a daughter.

But, they still seem to plan weekly meetings at a local motel.

Rose and Norah lost their mother at an early age when she took her own life. Rose, the elder sister, sort of began the motherly role towards Norah. Especially since their father, Joe (Alan Arkin), though loving is also struggling with odd things he is looking to sell to get rich quick.

Mac, who is a cop, over hears how much a crime scene cleanup crew charges and passes that on to Rose. Rose has been looking to become a real-estate agent, but it is taking much longer than she is expecting. Once Oscar is kicked out of school and she must send him to a private school, she takes Mac's plan and begins cleaning up crime scenes with her sister.

While shopping for supplies she meets Winston (Clifton Collins Jr.), who becomes a bit of a mentor to her as she really has no idea what she is doing, or what she needs to have to complete these jobs.

Though it is buried throughout, the underlying theme of the film is family. Rose has also felt she needs to take care of her sister, especially after their mother's death. Norah, who is still hurting from her mother's death, has some issues that she begins to work through - and realizes she needs to step out on her own away from Rose.

Finally, Rose begins to realize that she needs to stop living in the past and begin planning for her future, which means leaving everything else behind from her past.

Very enjoyable film. As I said, Adams and Blunt are very talented and I have really started to enjoy their work from the new things I have seen. I also love how well the English Blunt is able to speak Americanized - I just think it is so cool.

Plus another subtle yet solid performance from Collins Jr. He has been acting for a good while now, but I didn't become really aware of him until Star Trek. And here he played off Adams very well.

A good start to the new list, looking forward to the rest.

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