sunshine cleaning

in this film, rose (amy adams) is a single mother who works as a maid. she does a cleaning job and goes to tell the house owner that she's finished, and it turns out to be a girl she went to high school with. apparently rose was very popular in high school, and was the head cheerleader. she tries to get over the embarrassment of being seen as a maid by her former high school friend, and is frustrated that she feels her life is headed nowhere. there is talk of getting her real estate license, but it is just that: talk.

rose's little boy, oscar, is quite a handful and always gets into trouble. the principle and teacher of oscar call rose into the office to explain that he needs to take medication and go into special needs. rose refuses, and takes him out of school. the only alternative she has is to put him in private school, which she can't afford.

through all of this mayhem, rose is having an affair with her high school sweetheart, mack, who married someone else from high school. mack is always making empty promises to rose, like how he will put her in classes to get her real estate license. however, he proposes an interesting plan to rose as to how she can make extra money for oscar to go to private school. mack is a police officer, and he sees that the people who clean up after crime scenes make quite a bit of money...

rose's deadbeat sister, nora (emily blunt), gets roped into the idea, and soon enough rose and nora have their own business: sunshine cleaning. they clean up the mess that is left when someone dies. while rose is working to earn money for oscar's private school, oscar is hanging out with his grandpa--who has a couple of screws coming loose. he is always thinking of new quirky ideas to make money, most of which fall through.

the story is a complex web of peoples lives: rose, nora, oscar, mack, grandpa, and the people they come in contact with. rose has to grow up a little and realize what this affair with mack is all about. she hopes that he will leave his wife, but comes to realize that may not ever happen. also, rose and nora have issues they have to work on, and their relationship is constantly fluctuating.

as her business grows and develops, rose becomes more independent and realizes that she is not just a maid, she affects peoples lives and makes a part of a bad situation (death) a little better (by removing it).

there were a couple of issues i had with this movie:
1. there were a lot of side stories that weren't always followed through with
2. along with #1, there are some characters that seem to just be put in to throw you off, because they are never followed through with

i watched this movie with the expectation that i would love it, and it just didnt measure up all the way. it was funny, sweet, dramatic, and interesting. but it did not make me love it. they needed closure with all the characters, which i felt was lacking in the end. the movie just sort of ended. it was one of those endings where you go "WHAT??? that is the end?" it was a relatively happy ending for sure, but just happened too fast and with little explanation.

the grade:

B-