Sunshine Cleaning
Terri
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
If you don't mind being depressed, better yet--if you enjoy it--just like some people love to be scared to death, then you'll LOVE Sunshine Cleaning.
This movie has all of the elements of a solid drama and the acting is excellent! Yet, I'm not enthusiastic about it.
#Normally, when someone is left with few options in life and they have the drive to overcome obstacles, I am excited and sympathetic toward his or her cause. The problem for me, i.e., what made this movie depressing, is that the hero and heroine (father/daughter), while left with those challenges, have little wherewithall to meet them. Rose, played by Amy Adams, while adorable to look at and of kind and generous heart lacks native intelligence.
One subplot point that one might miss is the sometimes devastating consequences of being dealt that hand without the good fortune of also having luck on one's side. The result is recurring bouts with squalor and hopelessness.
It's the apparent hopelessness that makes it depressing.
A warm, fuzzy ending fails to save the audience from the emotional impact of this downer, because it's too little, too late.
Still, a thumbs up, because it has all the elements of a sound and fulfilling drama. I wouldn't see this one for sheer "entertainment," though, unless, as I said at the outset, you don't mind being depressed.
From Dan's Gradebook: B- (because it has a worthwhile message within the context of everyday misery.)
. . .-Back to top-
. . Terri thought this film was, “depressing,” with little to say for it in terms of the comedy she was expecting. She said she felt depressed for just about the entire movie and that only in one scene that occurred, just prior to the credits, did she find anything funny about it.
"Alan Arkin is still a fine actor," she said and I have to agree with that.
I gathered that Terri was disappointed, because she was expecting something more along the order of Little Miss Sunshine, which she thoroughly enjoyed, because they were both produced by Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf. But, alas, the only real kinship was through the acting of Alan Arkin.
Each of the two movies had a different tenor, and I had to agree with Terri on this, "There was very little to laugh about in this movie!"
Terri said, "Thumbs up on this one--but only if you don't mind being depressed."
* * *
