Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

This was an interesting film.
Rose Lorkowski (the always brilliant Amy Adams) cleans houses for a living while her former high school friend is in real estate. She is still sleeping with her married lover who just might be the father of her young son, Oscar (Jason Spevack) and her sister (Emily Blunt) is a big-time screw up. Her life sucks.
And it doesn't look like it getting any better. Her son is having issues with licking things with probably some sort of mild autism or something similar so he's basically kicked out of school.
She needs money. Luckily, Mac (Steve Zahn), her married lover, is a police officer and hears how much money people make just cleaning up crime scenes. That's all he sees her as, a cleaning lady.
But she goes with it, enlisting the help of her sister who trips over chairs. They are making a difference in the lives of these people even if its only briefly. They, thanks to the help of the kind shop owner (Clifton Collins, Jr.), become legit, getting clearances and such. Finally, Rose is not completely unhappy in her life.
Norah, the sister, even befriends a woman under false pretenses. Lynn (Mary Lynn Rajskub) had a mother who was a hoarder and the sisters cleaned out her trailer home, Lynn never bothering to care. Naturally, the friendship doesn't survive this revelation.
The plot is not brilliant and the character development is slow but the film is still enjoyable nevertheless.
Then, everything comes to a halt. While Rose is off at a baby shower, Norah is alone at a crime scene, and because the smell is just horrible, she lights a candle in the bedroom. When she goes to move a mattress, a small kitten escapes. Norah goes to catch the kitten but the mattress catches on fire and she is unable to put it out. Just like that, the fledgling business is in the red 40,000 dollars. Rose is furious. I can't blame her. Sure it really was an accident but I don't think Norah realizes how bad that actually is.
Fortunately, the girls' father (Alan Arkin) comes to the rescue. He's a businessman but still makes some bad investments, such as trying to sell illegal seafood. But he wants his daughter to be happy. So he sells his house and moves in with Rose and Oscar and goes to work for her because she's the expert.
Though the acting is great, as Arkin, Adams and Blunt always deliver, I found the subtle love interest of the shop owner, Winston and Rose as odd. It is not resolved at the end, and I needed it to be, one way or the other. And Norah didn't grow up enough. She is still running away from her issues, literally. Going on a road trip with the rescued kitten. Who knows what will happen to her. But at least Rose finally dumps Mac, and thank goodness for that one. Oscar is now in the school he needs to be so some things do end well.
Oh well, this film deals with normal people, the little man who is often forgotten about and that is admirable. And it does go quickly but it is not as good as it needed to be. Grade: B+