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Kansas City's Online Journal of the Performing Arts

With an opening sequence that is as startling as getting sucker-punched by a Mack truck, Sunshine Cleaning is a brilliant piece of cinema containing a seamless blend of smartly-written comedy and sincere, emotional drama.

Rose Lorkowski (Academy Award nominee Amy Adams, Doubt) is a single mom with low self-esteem trying to eke out a living. Scarred by her mother's suicide when she was a child, Rose's life is further complicated by a young son (Jason Spevack) that can't stay out of trouble and her ongoing, misguided affair with a married police detective, Mac (Steve Zahn).

Always hoping for a better life, Rose goes into the lucrative world of cleaning up after dead people. She enlists the help of her shiftless younger sister, Norah (Emily Blunt, The Great Buck Howard), who resents that Rose is always trying to take care of her.

Despite their initial inexperience and the friction that sometimes arises between them, the Lorkowksi sisters slowly build their Sunshine Cleaning business into a successful enterprise, which gives Rose the chance to put her son into private school and to show her fellow ex-high school cheerleaders that she has made something of herself.

Adams is quickly demonstrating that she is one of the most versatile actresses of her generation. Her potent abilities are as wide-ranging as Cleaning's screenplay as she deftly shifts through her character's intense, emotional vulnerabilities. Adams's performance is complimented by Blunt as she shines in her own right with a character who's perhaps even more pained than her older sister. Blunt, who didn't have a chance to show much in The Great Buck Howard, is simply wonderful, but of course what helps them to be brilliant together is the terrific chemistry they share on screen.

Adams and Blunt are surrounded by a solid supporting cast that includes Academy Award winner Alan Arkin as their father who makes big promises he can't follow through with, and Clifton Collins, Jr. (Capote, Traffic) as a genial one-armed store owner who takes an interest in Rose.

Sunshine Cleaning is a rare gem that should not go unnoticed. It's funny. It's smart. It's heartbreaking. It's uplifting. It's rewarding. It has everything you could look for in a film sans special effects and gimmicks.
    
On a letter grade scale from A being excellent to F for failing, Sunshine Cleaning receives an A.

Sunshine Cleaning is rated R and has a running time of 102 minutes.

Now Showing
Tivoli Cinemas
Westport Manor Square, 4050 Pennsylvania, KCMO
Visit www.tivolikc.com or call 913-383-7756 for showtimes.

Leawood Theatre
3707 W 95th St., Leawood
Visit www.fineartsgroup.com or call 913-642-1133 for more information. 

By Michael D. Smith

Indie Film Editor

Michael D. Smith earned a Bachelor of Arts in history at College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri followed by a Master of Arts in history at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Inspired by such critics as Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, Michael started reviewing films in 1992 for College of the Ozarks's student-run newspaper. After returning to the Kansas City area in 1994, he continued film reviewing by writing for the Cass County Democrat Missourian in Harrisonville.

In 2000 Michael joined Sun Publications in Overland Park, Kansas where he served as its film critic and Arts and Entertainment Editor. During his tenure there, he was also the film critic for the "Fine Arts Radio Hour" and "Celebrity Scoop" radio shows on KXTR. After leaving the Sun in late 2002, he became the A&E writer for the Olathe News in Olathe, Kansas. He also worked as a freelance writer for The Squire in Leawood, Showcase Publishing in Lake Ozark, Missouri and the Kansas City Star.

Michael is currently a member of the Kansas City Film Critics Circle, a professional film critic organization established in 1966 by the late Dr. James Loutzenhiser.