Starring Amy Adams, Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Steve Zahn, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Clifton Collins, Jr., and Jason SpevackWritten by Megan Holley
Directed by Christine Jeffs
Little indie movies always have to work harder for me to enjoy them for some reason. They need to overcome the smaller budget and grainier look with a stellar story. The main storyline of Sunshine Cleaning -- dealing with two sisters who form a business specializing in cleaning up after crime scenes -- is entirely amusing. Unfortunately, it is the secondary plots that cause the movie to falter a bit.
Amy Adams is quickly becoming an actress that I would see in anything. She has a charisma onscreen that is winning and captivating, and as Rose she absolutely becomes the character. Similarly, Emily Blunt as younger sister Norah was Norah...I never felt like I was watching actresses onscreen at all. Steve Zahn and Clifton Collins, Jr., also provided some good supporting work. On the other hand, in the case of Alan Arkin (as the two ladies' father), I couldn't help but think I was watching an actor. Arkin was simply playing the same character he played in Little Miss Sunshine. It certainly didn't help that the subplot surrounding Arkin's Joe trying to find success in various odd business ventures dragged down the movie. I didn't care at all about Joe. The same could be said for the subplot surrounding Lynn (Rajskub) as a woman who Blunt's Norah befriends after the two sisters clean up after the suicide of Lynn's mother. Completely unnecessary, it completely brought the movie to a halt whenever Rajskub was onscreen.
Those subplots are incredibly unfortunate because the general story is a great one and had such comedic potential. The movie was fairly short as it was, but I feel like if it was 30 minutes shorter without the extraneous secondary stories, it could've been a great movie. Unfortunately, it was only an average movie bolstered by winning performance from Amy Adams.
The RyMickey Rating: C+
I seriously want to change a ton of those ratings...I was literally just thinking about it tonight but thought it might be "bad form" or something...writing these reviews immediately after viewing these films is never a good thing...
ReplyDeleteI want Coraline to drop to a C+/C, Monsters vs. Aliens to drop to a B-...Honestly, this one probably stays at a C+, and, for now, I liked State of Play a little better than this (the acting in that one saved it).
I don't know...do you feel like it's "wrong" if I change the ratings this late in the game? I mean, on one hand, my opinion should be able to change as I think about it, but then I think, what the hell's the point of rating them if I'm just gonna change the way I feel about them?
As far as this one in particular goes...I liked it, but I still feel like the whole grandfather/grandson storyline (which inexplicably was a large part of the film) was pointless. As was the lesbian thing with Rajskub.
Your final sentence...
ReplyDelete"You should take on every summer movie" is tempting.
I'm shockingly enjoying going to see both good and shitty movies over the past two weeks.
Issue #1 would be my two week vacation in June.
Issue #2 -- if I'm being completely honest, if I didn't see movies like "Next Day Air" or "Dance Flick" with someone, I'd never see them. And since you're the only one I'd know that would subject themselves to crap like that, that poses a problem. I don't have your fortitude, man...
I think I might take up your challenge as long as you don't mind being my movie-going chum.
ReplyDeleteYou may have to give me an exception in case anything comes and goes within my two week June vacation, but I think I'll take up the challenge.