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Emily Blunt and Amy
Adams are pretty darn good, even in a movie that's pretty darn flawed.
Blunt handles her American accent well and plays probably the most
fascinating character in the bunch. She's a slacker but is also fiercely
devoted to her family. So devoted is she that she takes part in her
sister's cleaning business, a lucrative cleaning service that scrubs
blood, limbs, and any other bodily fluid left behind in crime scenes.
The two have a dynamic chemistry and that reflects on screen as a pure
highlight. They save what's pretty much a bland affair and Megan
Holley's screenplay fleshes them out as three dimensional individuals
with unresolved issues in their life and with one another. Blunt is the
stand out and is perfectly cast as Norah, the young woman who sets out
to redeem herself and a stranger's bitter loss while always making any
bad situation in to one that you'd be lucky to be apart of. The casting
is almost excellent and in spite of being unable to sell the film, Jeffs
and co. sell the principal cast pretty darn well.
Christine Jeffs movie is one that I really wanted to love and god
knows I went in to it with a shit eating grin ready for something
truly unique. Instead I was given something that fails to seize
anything resembling an identity. Channeling the same character from
"Little Miss Sunshine," Alan Alda leads what's basically about the
quirks of death and life and the problem is the writing never quite
knows what to do with such complex emotions. Is it a quirky movie
about eccentric people or is it a dramatic glimpse at how we deal
with the death of loved ones and humanity? The movie never quite
knows how to tackle the material because it literally jumps all over
the map with characters who vie to be taken seriously on screen when
the script defies such goals to add a comedic twist.
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The problem is that it is at no
time funny nor quirky and just teeters back and forth for
the entire run time.
I felt like
I was watching two films the entire time and this leaves
much of what happens with a confused tone that is never sure
what it's asking of its audience. We want to laugh at
something but we're instead given characterization filled
with tragedy and loss and unresolved goals that keep it
firmly near manipulative heart tugging. When we wait to
understand where they're coming from, Jeffs instead tries
for philosophical and complex, emotions that don't go too
far and are instead simplified through a brutally trite
obsession with CB Radios and heaven exemplified by young
Oscar, a cliché character we've seen a thousand times.
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He's
weird enough to fit in the dramedy niche but tragic enough to be
tragic. It's tough to find a single moment in here that isn't filled
with some self serving lesson on life and death and Jeffs simply
doesn't handle the material with the best of efficiency. I like
dramedies, I think some of the best dramedies get its message across
without leaving us feeling as if we're being pushed back and forth
between the various scenarios. Constantly tugging back and forth,
"Sunshine Cleaning" is hit and miss and it misses quite often.
It's not the worst movie
of 2009 but it's certainly not the best either. Trying too hard to be
quirky and original, "Sunshine Cleaning" is a hit and miss dramedy that
doesn't quite know what it's saying about anything. Good thing Blunt and
Adams make the experience worthwhile.
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