Sunshine Cleaning

is a little gem of a film, directed by New Zealander Christine Jeffs. Unpretentious, subtle and heartwarming, it's a black comedy to make you laugh, and cry. From the producers of

Little Miss Sunshine

, it's easy to see why comparisons have been made between the two.

There is the coincidental "sunshine" in the titles, but more importantly they are both character driven, independent, offbeat comedies about dysfunctional families, starring Alan Arkin. If you loved

Little Miss Sunshine

then you're bound to enjoy

Sunshine Cleaning

; they are different, but they share a similar spirit.

Amy Adams, who divides her time between the mainstream (

Night at the Museum 2)

and indie worlds (

Junebug

), stars as Rose Lorkowski. An optimist, Rose was "hot stuff" in high school but life since hasn't turned out as she expected it would. Instead of marrying her high school sweetheart Mac (Steve Zahn) she's now having an affair with him, cleaning houses for a living, and is a solo mum to 8-year-old son Oscar (Jason Spevack).

When an opportunity arises to start her own business cleaning up crime scenes, Rose recruits her rebellious sister Norah (Blunt). It's a gory business, and initially the girls have no idea what they are doing, but with a little help from Winston (Clifton Collins Jr), a one-armed cleaning products salesman, and their father (Arkin) they slowly find their feet.

Rose and Norah's relationship is the heart of this film, and Adams and Blunt (a Brit passing herself off perfectly as a native of Albuquerque) are convincing as siblings. Their lives have been shaped by the tragic death of their mother when they were young, and their new business venture's close relationship with death impacts on them, especially Norah.

Jeffs is no stranger to emotionally complex material (her previous work includes the New Zealand based story

Rain

, and

Sylvia

) and she handles it well, eliciting natural and moving performances from her talent, all the while maintaining the lighter, funnier moments.

Sunshine Cleaning

doesn't commit to being a totally wacky indie, or a realistic slice of life, but takes the best of both, and it's Jeffs' subtle direction, the dark humour and impressive performances that make it as entertaining as it is moving.

Francesca Rudkin

Cast

: Emily Blunt, Amy Adams

Director

: Christine Jeffs

Running time

: 91 mins

Rating

: R16 (violence, sex scenes and suicide)