cricketbat
This film was good, but it wasn't that good. The actual story of Amy Adams and her clean-up business was interesting, but every story surrounding that just felt half-baked and uninteresting. It should have been better.
KissEnglishPasto
........................................................from Pasto,Colombia...Via: L.A. CA., CALI, COLOMBIA and ORLANDO, FL Cinema that provokes a strong reaction from me, for good or for bad, is easier to review. "Movies in the Middle", like "SUNSHINE", always present much more of a challenge. "From the same people who brought you 'Little Miss Sunshine'…" This phrase was used a lot in the SUNSHINE promos. Maybe it got in the way of me getting more out of the film. It didn't set very well with me that… A) Both titles employ the word "SUNSHINE".B) Alan Arkin basically does a warmed over version of his role in "Little Miss" C) Both films are about dysfunctional families with a precocious child.Taken as a whole, it just seemed too obvious that "The same people who brought you…" wanted desperately to cash in, AGAIN, and SUNSHINE(2?)is just a vehicle for doing so! Still, it does have ingratiating qualities. If you can tolerate the slow as molasses initial 30 minutes…(OK-Wait, make that as DELIBERATE as Molasses!), you'll probably feel it was worth your while, a pretty good little indie film, which could easily have been a lot better.Catharsis, healing, coping, forgiveness and moving on, are some of the operative buzz-words for "Sunshine Cleaning". Perhaps just a tad too dreary for such a cheery title? "Sunshine" would have benefited from the injection of just a little more comic relief in the mix. The acting fell a little short of expectation. With Amy Adams (Junebug/Doubt) and Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada) perhaps my expectations were too high! Something was missing. The script was spotty and rather lackluster at times.The on-screen chemistry was variable. Often, Alan Arkin's presence seemed to be a hindrance to the flow and balance of the scene and the story. SUNSHINE did have a very down-to-earth, realistic feel to it. The problems, reactions to them, and solutions encountered, or not, as the case may be, were believable and mundane; stuff that we all can relate too. Immediately after viewing, I had settled on a 6 Star rating, thinking "Sunshine" was going to be sans ricocheting...But, there has been a little of that going on in that 'Id' of mine, hours after viewing. So, we'll up it to 7 Stars!.....ENJOY/DISFRUTELA! Any comments, questions or observations, in English o en Español, are most welcome!
Marvin Corea
It ends too quickly... What happens with Winston? What happens with Nora? Another loose end was Nora's acquaintance that worked at the blood bank. It seemed like that relationship ended all too suddenly.It would have been nice to see Rose surpass her high school classmates, especially the classmates at the baby shower that appeared to look down on her after she told them she cleaned up biohazards. I like the fact that Rose was able to turn her life around. But after the disaster, she seemed to give up. I wish she would have persevered. But luckily Dad helped and it turns out that everything would be OK. And it seemed like the son turned out OK as well since he went to a new private school and seemed to be happy.
Kong Ho Meng
Similar to Little Miss Sunshine, this indie flick is a likable film with plenty of meaningful moments to savour on... all to come to a disappointment in the end.The film failed to cover the plot in a way by leaving holes and patches somewhere, where it could have strive to be as wholesome as possible. Many details critical towards the character developments are not explained or totally missing. It may be possible that it is the intention to leave the viewer more room for interpretation, however once too many details are left out, it only becomes distracting and serves to rob off the viewer's focus on what was going on.For example, who is the father of the child? How did the main character ended up with a life living by hand-to-mouth but still able to maintain her..err..relationship with a certain someone? Where is the certain reconciliation that was missing?
