Sunshine Cleaning

4 Stars: ****

I loved Sunshine Cleaning. I loved it. It was clever, moving, sincere and touching. (Too many adjectives?) I could definitely tell that this was from the same producers as Little Miss Sunshine (which I also deeply love). 

The story is character driven, but also has a interesting plot to move us along. As two "down and out" sisters find themselves on the brink of financial and personal ruin, they form a crime scene clean-up company; and of course along the way find closure and meaning in their family's relationships. I know this may seem too chick flick and typical (besides the crime scene clean up), but you can expect something fresh and novel from the Little Miss Sunshine team- and that's what you get. The movie is witty and has just the right amount of real-life drama and subtle humor to make for a film. 

I was already a huge fan of Amy Adams and Emily Blunt before this movie, but this increased my admiration for them even more.  They do such a wonderful job of recreating the tension and love that is often shared between sisters. You also can't go wrong with Alan Arkin and Steve Zahn (my husband's look-a-like) in supporting roles. 

All around the movie has a great cast, with great screen writing and cinematography. The movie is both funny and touching and makes you leave the theater with a smile and a feeling of optimism that didn't have upon entering. 

The Wrestler

1 1/2 Stars: *'

I'm just going to dive right in: we did NOT enjoy this movie. Robbie I both had extremely high expectations, which may have been part of the problem, as we were greatly let down. After great reviews, one crazy Golden Globe speech and a million ridiculous TMZ bits, we were expecting greatness! 

Mickey Rourke did make an amazing comeback with this film- we can all agree on that. I was even mildly rooting for him during oscar season because he was such an under-dog. Even the story of how The Wrestler began production was intriguing- with all on again, off again funding and studio backing. However, in my humble opinion, that is probably why the movie got to be so huge. It only takes a few sold critics and a bit of a media buzz to create acclaim for a movie like this well after it came out. 

Honestly, I feel like I'm the only one saying "the Emperor is wearing no clothes", but this movie was unentertaining and raunchy. First of all, I don't know what I truly expected because the main character whips his bleached blond, mangily hair around the whole movie wearing bloody, neon green stretch pants. Secondly, the crux of the movie is bad WWF wrestling matches, so no surprise there at my lack of enthusiasm. Thirdly, I am just not personally interested in Marisa Tomei's gross boobs, I'm just not. 

The problem was that I had already seen the whole movie when I watched the preview and oscar clips. He's old and sad. He loves a stripper. His daughter hates him. He wears spandex. The end. Again, to Mickey's credit, he did do a good acting job. Very believable and moving during the "emotional" scenes. But he was playing himself, so how hard can that be, and then on top of that he was being emotional about "pro" wrestling . . . so . . . 

I woke up from the end of this movie feeling bored, dirty and depressed. Sorry, world, I have to disagree with you on this one.