It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Rose works as a maid while trying to raise her troublemaker (according to the school) son. Her sister Norah still lives with Dad, unable to hold down a simple job and fully immersed in her slacker lifestyle. The father Joe seems to have ambitions to be an entrepreneur in his retirement years. When Rose's lover and father of her child suggests she start a cleaning business taking care of crime scenes, it looks like she might be able to turn her life around. Amy Adams is full of neurotic energy as Rose. Stung by a chance encounter with an old schoolmate, she starts to make efforts to achieve the status she believes a former top cheerleader should attain. The storyline of starting the business, overcoming the queasiness and glimpsing success before setbacks kick in, is all nicely done. The characters are natural and engaging. Emily Blunt as Norah is aimless and affable. She makes a connection borne from misplaced compassion. The joyless sex she puts herself through with her sometime boyfriend, and her lack of work ethic, point to something missing in her life. But she is a doting aunt and empathetic being, who needs to go be her better self. And both women need to face up to the dark legacy of their mother. The narrative doesn't always hold up however, and some episodes appear random. Oscar's behavioural problems are overplayed, especially the licking. Dad buying shrimp is also a storyline that just dangles on the edges. Some conversations with heaven via CB radio do not quite convince. And a character having one arm seems too much of a deliberate play for quirkiness. The ending, involving some baby shower nonsense and a sibling fall out, seems rather forced and spoon-fed. Good acting, some nice relationships, but in the end this in no Little Miss Sunshine.

One of the best touching movie I had seen recently....Good Casting (One being my fav. Amy Adams) and good story with a reason behind what is being done as a business...Screenplay was very perfect and it never makes us feel boring or dragging...Very interesting plot taken in a very interesting way...There are so many scenes which will make you feel the love of someone who is not with you...it can be anyone whom you loved the most....Seriously if someone is living alone, it will make them cry and if someone has lost their mom, they cant avoid their eyes from becoming wet...Very nice movie and I expect such good movies from Hollywood...Good Job Team!

"We come into people's lives when they have experienced something profound - and sad. And they've lost somebody, you know? And um, the circumstances, they're always different. But that's the same. And we help. In some small way we, um, we help."Directed by Christine Jeffs (Sylvia) and written by Megan Holley, Sunshine Cleaning is one of those small indie films with big performances and a feel good story that allows the audience to connect with its characters. It's hard to resist despite its clichés and flaws, given it has very strong lead performances from Amy Adams and Emily Blunt and very well written female characters that are rare to find making it hard not to sympathize with them. This is a solid indie that manages to balance really well the dark humor with the drama. Many people might have issues with the forced ending, but the emotional detail that Blunt and Adams give to their characters makes this a film worth watching. A lot of credit must be given to screenwriter Holley for creating such strong and believable female characters in a lead role which are really rare to find nowadays. The performance from the cast only enhances this aspect of the film making single parenting look as hard as it really is. The film wouldn't have worked if it weren't for the performances and the balance in shifts of tones between humor and drama which Jeffs found. Rose (Amy Adams), a single mother to her seven year old son Oscar (Jason Spevack), is a responsible and hard working parent who is making a living as a house cleaner while she is trying to find time to finish her studies to become a real estate agent. Her sister, Norah (Emily Blunt), is a free spirited woman who finds it difficult to hold on to any job as she continues to live with her father Joe (Alan Arkin). Norah and Rose haven't had a normal childhood since their mother committed suicide when they were still very young. Being the older sister, Rose had to grow up as the responsible child. She was successful in High School but her glory days seem to be behind her as she now has to settle to having an affair with her teenage sweetheart Mac (Steve Zahn) who is now a married cop. When her young son is expelled from yet another school, Rose tries to come up with more money to put him into a private school. Mac tells her how the people who clean up after crime scenes make a lot of money, so she decides to start her own business with her sister and thus begin cleaning up after messy and bloody crime scenes. The cleaning business will also lead Rose and Norah to clean up some of the emotional distress from their past as they begin to recall them through familiar situations.Sunshine Cleaning might be considered as simply another feel good indie film that tries to manipulate the audience through a roller-coaster of emotions while seeming to tie everything up perfectly and neatly at the end. This forced ending might be a let down, but I found it to work thanks to the amount of time invested in the lives of these unique characters. Adams and Blunt both are superb here as they deliver strong performances and add a lot of emotional depth to their characters. Clifton Collins Jr also gives a memorable performance as a possible future love interest for Rose, but the story really focuses on her as she struggles to manage the different challenges life throws at her. She is a reminder to all of us that life is worth living despite the struggles that we may be forced to go through, and that perhaps those small simple moments are the ones that make our lives a better place. Rose continues to stay positive despite the obstacles she faces and realizes that life is worth living despite it all. The monologue she delivers near the end of the film summarizes what this film was all about. Kudos to the director and screenwriters for presenting us with two strong female characters and allowing them to be the heart and soul of the film.

Plot: Two screw-up, immoral sisters start a crime scene clean up company.If you're not laughing already, then you will not laugh much at this movie. Personally, I didn't laugh at all. I LOVE indie movies, the quirkier the better. I love films that just focus on people without a lot of plot, but the writers of the film should bother to say SOMETHING. Not just beg against my patience to suffer through a worthless set of disjointed scenes.Also, I didn't like either of the main characters. I certainly didn't feel compassion for the main character. AT ALL. I thought she was an ex-cheerleader semi-slut adulteress. I didn't feel sorry for her screwball sister, especially when she burnt a customer's house down. I didn't feel sorry for Alan Arkin's "father" character and his dummy get rich quick schemes. I only felt a little sorry for the lead character's son. Of course, he was fatherless because his mother is incapable of making responsible choices. He was termed "a little bastard" in the movie. But don't worry. His mother and aunt informed him that being a little bastard was so awesome and a sure guarantee to an awesome life. All the while, the kid is becoming more of a problem child under the influence of his weirdo aunt and corny, slag mother. The son got kicked out of school for licking a teacher's leg and other completely unacceptable actions. But of course, he was dressed up as the victim. The teachers and the principal were the BAD people for actually wanting his unacceptable behaviors to stop. The mother character blamed everyone EXCEPT the her son who was choosing to do the bad/weird stuff. "It's not your fault that you're doing bad things." And why isn't it his fault that he's doing bad things? Because as Alan Arkin's character tells him, "You're doing these things because you're a genius!" What kind of weird, destructive, criminal breeding parenting is that? Reminded me of all the other loser parents that I have to deal with on a semi-regular basis.The dialogue was also weak. The scene in the bathroom where they were "talking it all out" after the house fire was contrived and not genuine at all. In other scenes, every time there seemed to be the potential for good and interesting dialogue, the director just left it hanging. For example, the scene where the pregnant wife confronts the home-wrecker in the gas station. They started a dialogue...then nothing.Throughout the movie, Adams seemed to specialize in being flustered and overly emotional at all times. She would get nervous and emotional suddenly and would do certain things without a lot of explanation or obvious motivation. It was almost as if she was contriving the importance of her job so that she could brag on it later, such as when she sat with the old widow. I don't know how it could be a comfort to have a neurotic, weepy stranger sitting next to you. But I guess we weren't supposed to think that deeply.There was a small clothed, semi-lesbian scene, for those who are hungry to see such. I didn't care for it. It was gratuitous and also sort of stupid.It also bugged me that the girls were always so desperate to see their mother in her tiny role in a "made for TV movie," but neither one of them was smart enough to actually RECORD the scene ever, or better yet BUY the movie. This isn't the 1970's where we are all desperate to catch a glimpse of a movie that we may or may not ever see again. You can buy any movie on the planet. But I guess we were supposed to forget that for a moment for the sake of the "touching moment" at the end where the girls watch their ordinary looking mother say her line in the movie.Steve Zahn was solid in his small role.Once the movie was over, I just rolled my eyes and put it back in it's case. I'm glad I just borrowed it and did not buy this little shipwrecked film.