Amy Adams Brings the Sparkle to ‘Sunshine Cleaning’

Rating: 3.5/5.0

CHICAGO – Amy Adams gives a performance in Christine Jeffs’ “Sunshine Cleaning” that is not only the best actress turn of the year to date but nearly single-handedly makes the many flaws of this quirky comedy easy to overlook. It’s rare, but sometimes one talented star can make any project shine. Amy Adams is that talented.

In many ways, what Adams delivers in “Sunshine Cleaning” is more subtle and complex than the naivete routine that earned her an Oscar nomination for “Doubt”. Yes, Adams gives yet another performance that could be part of the year-end conversation when awards are being handed out, although the film is average enough that she’ll probably be forgotten.

Emily Blunt, Alan Arkin, Jason Spevack and Amy Adams star in Sunshine Cleaning.
Photo credit: Lacey Terrell and Overture Films

The rest of “Sunshine Cleaning” needed a bit more polish, particularly the bizarre screenplay that jumps tones like a film festival patron bouncing from movie to movie. “Cleaning” is from the genre of “Sundance comedies” like “Little Miss Sunshine” or “Juno” (although it’s not nearly as good as either).

The “Sundance comedy” is practically a formula at this point - odd characters, a great ensemble, quirky dialogue, unexpected plot twists, and usually Steve Zahn or Alan Arkin. The problem is that, like a lot of Sundance comedies, being overly unpredictable and quirky is sort of, well, predictable for a movie like “Sunshine Cleaning”.

Ultimately, “Sunshine Cleaning” is a little too confused in its tone changes and a little too self-conscious in its quirkiness, but Adams rocks enough to make it worth a look.

One of the better actresses of her generation plays Rose, a single mother who may have had her best days when she was the most popular girl in high school. Since then, this sweetheart of a woman has taken on far too much baggage including an affair with a married cop named Mac (Steve Zahn). Her flighty sister Norah (Emily Blunt) and dream-chasing father (Alan Arkin) don’t help and when she starts cleaning her old classmate’s houses in her role as a maid, life seems to have finally brought Rose down.

Emily Blunt and Amy Adams star in Sunshine Cleaning.
Photo credit: Lacey Terrell and Overture Films

After noticing how much they make at a crime scene, Mac suggests that Rose move from cleaning toilets to cleaning human remains after people die. She opens her own business with her sister and a series of quirky events pile up until Rose finally realizes that she needs to clean up her own life a bit.

“24“‘s Mary Lynn Rajskub co-stars as a girl who Norah becomes attached to after a death and Clifton Collins Jr. plays a one-armed cleaning supply salesman with whom Rose and her son (Jason Spevack) develop a friendship.

One-armed salesmen, crime scenes, a flighty father with thawing shrimp in his bathtub - “Sunshine Cleaning” is overflowing with quirky and the odd behavior threatens to sink the believability that Adams brings to the piece.

Still, through it all, she finds something genuine by making this woman’s cluttered life completely three-dimensional. Without her, “Sunshine Cleaning” would have been a total mess.

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com