Sunshine Cleaning (2008)

“Sunshine Cleaning” is a slim, neat comedy about two sisters (Amy Adams and Emily Blunt) who seek to better their dreary New Mexico lives by breaking into a niche business – body clean up. Be it murder, a suicide or natural causes, most deaths are nasty, bloody, piss-filled occasions and somebody has to clean up the mess. Why not these gals? The film messes with the hot-actress casting: One sister was the “it” girl in high school and is now a single mom (Adams) who cleans houses for a living and is having an affair with a married cop. The younger sis (Blunt) is a groundless single, dabbling in drugs, bonking a sleazy drug dealer, and may just be discovering she’s gay. This is funny and poignant, and refuses to tie up all the loose strings, bringing it a truthiness vibe. (This is still Hollywood drama.) Alan Arkin is on droll autopilot as the – drum roll -- eccentric grand pop. Shocker. It brings to mind another, better film with “Sunshine” in the title. B