Sunshine Cleaning (15) ****
Feuding sisters rediscover life amid the detritus of the recently deceased in Christine Jeffs' portrait of dysfunctional family life.
Screenwriter Megan Holley sketches the protagonists in detail, nurturing them through the various trials and tribulations until they achieve some form of personal healing.
Oscar nominee Amy Adams and Emily Blunt are spookily well-matched as the chalk-and-cheese siblings who always end up at loggerheads.
The actresses adopt similar speech patterns and mannerisms, and even look uncannily alike, as their heroines seek fulfilment by setting up a most unusual cleaning service.
Rose Lorkowski (Adams) was once the captain of her school's cheerleading squad and the envy of her classmates.
Now, she is a 30-something single mother trying to take care of her young son Oscar (Jason Spevack).
Rose works long hours as a cleaner for little pay while her salesman father Joe (Alan Arkin) searches for the next big scam.
While Rose toils night and day, her slacker sister Norah (Blunt) is fired from one job after another.
She is far more content to lie in bed all day and let life pass her by.
At the suggestion of her married cop lover Mac (Steve Zahn), Rose lands some work as a crime scene clean-up technician, mopping up bodily fluids after the police have gone.
Norah joins her sister in the ghoulish enterprise and the two estranged siblings unexpectedly bond.,
Sunshine Cleaning strikes a pleasing balance between laughter and tears without ever resorting to cheap gags or cloying sentiment.
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Weather for Portsmouth
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -4 C to 3 C
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