Review of Sunshine Cleaning (2008) by Brandon V — 31 Jul 2010

So sue me, I enjoyed Sunshine Cleaning.

Part family drama with a dash of feel-goodery, a few well-placed plot twists keep the movie interesting. This is good, because my one criticism is that the film suffers from "a slice of life" overdrive.

The overarching plot doesn't really have a lot of punch to it...you watch because the characters and twists are interesting, but not because there's a real sense of achievement to any of their actions. Progressions are made in the characters' lives, but each one feels like a subplot without one single unifying goal. I felt like, perhaps, something ended up on the cutting room floor that shouldn't have.

That being said, the performances are good and help offset the somewhat scattered plot(s). Amy Adams does a fantastic job, as does Emily Blunt. I feel that Clifton Collins Jr.'s character was intriguing, and warranted further exploration. He did a fine job as well, but the character offered further possibilities and I can't help but think that he was underutilized.

In conclusion, would I recommend this to my friends? It would really depend on who I was talking to. It was a decent piece of work, but was stretched a bit too far in too many directions to live up to it's full potential.