April 24, 2009
Review: Sunshine Cleaning
Can A Dramedy Really Be Funny?
I admit I didn't really want to see Sunshine Cleaning--and yes, I'm always screaming about women in Hollywood so, yes, I feel appropriately guilty about that fact. After all, it was made by women (Sylvia director Christine Jeffs, and writer Megan Holley) and stars two of my favorite actresses, Amy Adams and Emily Blunt.
The sisters Lorkowski
Essentially I bought my ticket as a deliberate contribution to women's box office earnings. Also, there was no way I was going to see Obsessed, which looks like an updated version of Fatal Attraction. I don't care how fierce Beyoncé is, psycho-stalker-chick movies are not good for women.
Why didn't I want to see Sunshine Cleaning? Because dramedies are not my cup of tea (cf. devotion to comedy as genre). Worse yet, indie flicks, by deliberately avoiding what they feel to be clichés of "normal" films, have a set of clichés that is all their own--for example, the stalwart refusal to tie up stories with pat endings, or move things along at a "movie" pace. Yeah, stick it to the Hollywood man, indie flicks!
But here's the rub: why would I pay ten bucks to see something that is as unpredictable, slow, and disjointed as real life? There's no shame in actually crafting a story with structure, folks. I call this refusal to make fiction any fun "Uncle Vanya Syndrome," and it's why, If I must see drama, Ibsen wins over Checkov every time.
In my book, Sunshine Cleaning suffers a bit from this syndrome, and (predictably) is not laugh-out-loud funny. If you look at it as a vehicle for some very good performances, however, it's a fine film that admirably achieves its goals. And to be fair to the writer and director, there is definite structure here--just not comedy, exactly.
Amy Adams and Emily Blunt play financially desperate sisters Rose and Norah Lorkowski, who start an emergency cleaning service. Meanwhile Rose's imaginative son Oscar (Jason Spevack, adorable in a predictably offbeat way) has gotten kicked out of school, and has to be watched by Rose's huckster father Joe (Alan Arkin). The film follows the sisters' struggles, revealing the family's history and the complicated relationships between siblings, parents and children.
Adams and Blunt do their stuff sans perfect Hollywood makeup and lighting, a nice touch that highlights their brave performances. Arkin, too, does his usual great job, and the kid Spevack is pretty inoffensive. Supporting cast members Mary Lynn Rajskub and Clifton Collins Jr. also did great jobs playing unremarkable people whose lives happen to intersect with the sisters'.
I suppose you could say the film has a feminine voice. I especially liked that Rose's ongoing affair with married cop Mac (Steve Zahn) was effectively presented without any moral judgment. No "fallen woman" crap here, just an obviously bad decision made for completely understandable reasons. Steve Zahn sinks his teeth into the unsavory character he plays, proving that he's not just a lightweight, "nice guy" actor.
At any rate, it's a movie worth seeing if only because it (like Observe and Report) acknowledges the existence and problems of people without much money. I'm a little shaky on whether I feel like the ending is a victory, either in the world of the movie or in the real world, but hell, I'd give these people money to make another movie. And coming from someone who doesn't like dramedy, that's saying a lot.
