Production company: Christine Jeffs
Director: Overture Films
Cast: Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Steve Zahn, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Clifton Collins Jr., Jason Spevack
Rating: R for language, disturbing images, sexuality and brief drug use.
By Gregg Tubbs
Sunshine Cleaning is an offbeat and endearing comic drama about two far-from-perfect sisters making their way in an imperfect world. Faced with a recession and rapidly diminishing employment prospects, the sisters find their future doing work no one else wants—cleaning up after crime scenes. Although their new career revolves around death, the two learn much about life and each other in a quirky morality tale that explores determination and sisterhood. Though not a film for the squeamish, the honest and even uplifting story draws its strength from likable stars and keen observations about life.
Directed by Christine Jeffs (Sylvia), Sunshine Cleaning focuses on an average family who finds out that dreams can be fulfilled in the most unexpected ways. Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams), once a high school cheerleading captain who dated the quarterback, has become a thirty-something single mother involved a dead-end affair with a married cop. She scrapes by working as a maid, cleaning the types of houses she once envisioned herself living in. Her sister Norah (Emily Blunt) isn’t doing much better. A natural slacker, Norah still lives at home with their dad Joe (Alan Arkin), a salesman, who has always been a sucker for ill-conceived get rich quick schemes.
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Faced with a recession and rapidly diminishing employment prospects, Rose (Amy Adams) and her sister Norah (Emily Blunt) find their future doing work no one else wants—cleaning up after crime scenes. Copyright © 2009 Overture Films.
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Rose desperately wants to get her son Oscar (Jason Spevack) into a better school, where his intelligence and imagination will be recognized and fostered. However, to do that, she needs money. With Norah’s help, she gets into the crime scene clean-up business as a short-term way to bring in extra money. Before long, the sisters are learning the ropes of the very messy business of cleaning up after deaths, including murders and suicides. As grisly as this may sound, the film is hardly any more graphic than the typical episode of CSI. The film does milk some macabre humor out of this “dirty work,” but to its credit, it focuses more on the human element by exploring the emotional aftermath of death. Rose and Norah learn to appreciate life and understand the need to treat its end with dignity and respect.
Rose, in particular, is gifted at giving comfort. The former cheerleader has a knack for lifting spirits, lending an ear and looking at the bright side. In a revealing early scene after a particularly grueling day, we see Rose reciting from a note taped to her bathroom mirror. “You are strong. You are powerful. You are a winner,” she intones, in a cross between a cheer to spur herself on and a slightly desperate prayer. Prayers in disguise occur throughout the film and give us precious glimpses into its characters. When the sisters buy a van for their business, the salesman tells Oscar that its CB radio sends one’s voice “to heaven” in radio waves. After that, both Oscar and Rose privately use the radio to talk prayerfully to God and departed loved ones.
Throughout the film, the act of cleaning up after tragedies becomes a spiritual act that heals, comforts and washes way grief and guilt. Rose finds surprising fulfillment in her work. As she explains to friends, “We come into people’s lives after a terrible event. We take away all this terrible stuff, restore order, and in our own way, make things better.”
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Rose (Amy Adams) desperately wants to get her son Oscar (Jason Spevack) into a better school, where his intelligence and imagination will be recognized and fostered. Copyright © 2009 Overture Films.
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As is always the case, those who help others also receive reciprocal blessings. Cleaning up other people’s tragedies helps Rose and Norah clean up their own lives. Rose ends her affair and begins a new, healthier relationship. Norah, who has been emotionally stifled since the death of her mother years before, begins to find peace and move on. As their business grows, their old wounds are healed, and they find true respect for one another. As a result, Rose and Norah become closer and more supportive of each other.
Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are perfectly cast as the sisters—particularly Adams whose trademark perkiness helps bring levity to a serious subject. While neither sister fits the perfect “role model” mold, they are believable, imperfect people who are doing their best in a challenging world, which makes them easy to identify with and root for.
Sunshine Cleaning is a winning film, which balances humor with drama. It shows both the ugliness of death as well as the humanity of it. The story reinforces the value of life and the need to deal compassionately and sensitively with life’s end. The film also provides an ultimately uplifting look at the power of family and the resilience of the human spirit.
Study Questions:
- What did you think of the note Rose had on her mirror? What purpose did it serve? If you had a similar note on your mirror, what would it say?
- What are some similar words of encouragement in the Bible? Do you have a favorite? According to the Bible, who is the source of our strength and comfort? (See Psalm 23.)
- Rose and Norah both find themselves “stuck.” What events or failures of the past have made them stuck? Over the course of the film, how do they become unstuck and able to move on?
- Have you ever felt stuck in your life or hung up by disappointment? How did you get unstuck? How did your faith, friends or family help?
- Each of the sisters has weaknesses and behaves in some self-destructive ways. What are the weaknesses and destructive behavior of each? Can you identify with their struggles?
- What attributes do you admire in Rose and Norah? What is Rose’s greatest strength? What is Norah’s greatest strength?
- How does the film relate physical cleaning to spiritual cleaning? Did Jesus ever compare external cleanness to spiritual cleansing? (See Luke 11:39-41.)
- How can people be brought closer by death? Have you ever had a death bring you closer to someone in your life?
- What symbolism did you see in the model airplanes? Which characters did they relate to the most?
- Each major character achieves a personal victory. What was the victory for each character? How did they each change for the better?
Resources
Official Sunshine Cleaning site
Theatrical Trailer
