It’s disappointing when a film doesn’t live up to its potential, especially when you bring goodwill to it on the basis of previous experience.  In this case, I was inclined to give Sunshine Cleaning a pass on the basis of the delightful Little Miss Sunshine, which was the previous film the production team brought to the screen.  Sad to report then, that Sunshine Cleaning is a classic case of a missed opportunity, and despite a solid enough foundation failed to captivate me.

Rose and Emily are sisters, Rose the former cheerleader who bangs her high school boyfriend in a motel room in the half hope that he’ll abandon his wife; and Emily the kooky one who still lives with their dad, who is seemingly drafted in from a passing production of Death of  a Salesman in which he plays the haplesss lead.  Rose has an eight year old son, Oscar, and it’s his need to go to a school that will address his needs that drives the plot, which sees the sisters set up in business as crime scene cleaners.

So far, so good: it’s an engaging premise with strong performances all round.  Problem is, the script.  It’s functional enough, and hits all the beats a touching indie movie should, but rarely does it ever convince.  Which is a shame.  For instance, the business of crime scene cleaning is explored nowhere near enough, and it’s fascinating and unfamiliar territory.  My guess is screenwriter Megan Holley wanted the story to stay within specific emotional territory, rather than discovering something beyond what she had delineated as the parameters of her story.  So, we get some cutesy business wherein Emily finds some mementoes from a death scene and stalks the dead woman’s daughter to give them to her after some intense semi-sapphic stuff.  Which is, you know, OK in a soft focus way…but how about instead they’d been called to a crime scene a friend or lover was involved with; maybe the gruesome pregnant real estate agent who invites Rose to her baby shower?

But no, that’d be too full-on for a film which is trying awful hard to replicate the emotional beats of Little Miss Sunshine.  Trouble being, it lacks the goofy charm of its predecessor, and its producers would be advised to look into new directions rather than hoping lightning will strike twice.  To me, pretty much everything about Sunshine Cleaning comes across as anaemic, from a gutless soundtrack to some teethgrinding business wherein not only lickle Oscar, but his fully grown mother, use their company vehicle’s CB to attempt to communicate with the beyond.  Even writing that gives me the shivers, and gives you an indication of how the film again and again opts for the twee at the expense of true impact or insight.

One element in the film does just about survive the overall sense of the audience being put in a veal crate and deprived of protein.  There’s some delightful business concerning the sisters’ mum, who died some years ago, and whose appearance as a waitress in a tv movie is part of family mythology.  It starts with the sisters being seemingly amused by scenes where waitresses serve pie, and gains resonance when you realise that it’s their own mother they’re referencing, and not some generic all-American waitress.  In due course the film appears on tv, and the two sisters watch it in different places, and that forms a greater connection between them than much of the meaningful and predictable dialogue they share about their feelings, which came across like being at a party where a singer-songwriter touted by her record company as the next Joni Mitchell is being played too loud.

Why stick it to this film when I’ve recently given some braindead action movies a pass?  Well, it’s all about style and expectations.  I’d rather see an action movie that accomplishes its objectives with class than a film that wants to engage subtler emotions but fails to mine the emotional potential of its raw material.  And Sunshine Cleaning strikes me as being fey and malnourished, aiming for the right notes but failing to reach them for lack of conviction.