“You might have been hot shit in high school, but what are you now…huh??? NOTHING!” shouts the pregnant woman to her husband’s lover.

Rose, played by Amy Adams, was a popular cheerleader in high school but now cleans houses for rich people. At night she hits the local highway motel to bang her old flame. She masks the affair to family by pretending to be taking a real estate certification course.

Sunshine Cleaning is a film about two sisters and the humourous and heart-rending struggles they face in a desperate attempt to get their shit together. Like most siblings, there is rivalry “You LOVE it when I fuck up…me screwing up gives you the biggest woody!” shouts Norah to her big sister Rose. But it is Nora that Rose picks, as a partner in crime, to start a cash-grab career of cleaning bio-hazard waste. Seemingly a job for the thick skinned, fragile Rose still needs a post-it note on bathroom mirror to remind her that she is ‘strong’ and a ‘winner’. Norah lives at home with Dad (Alan Arkin) and agrees to the scheme after getting fired from fast food Chinese restaurant.

The sisters bond over blood and find a sense of tranquility and pride through scooping poutine maggots off the floor and bagging a severed finger. Life works in mysterious ways.

For a story rooted in tragedy, humour abounds from the get go; “He’s over here in fishing too” says man referring to splattered brains of recent suicide victim in Hunting Sport Store. A provocative and intelligent script evokes laughter through the most unusual of circumstances.

Oscar, Rose’s son, gets pulled into the principal’s office after freaking out his teacher by licking the aquarium and then her leg. Rose ditches a baby shower after women begin to cheer before slamming their faces in a diaper full of melted chocolate (why do women do this??). Crown mouldings and square footage become naughty whispers between lovers and a little boy without a dad is reassured that it’s a cool asset: “You’ll probably start a band called Bastard’s Son.” Wicked.

From the square-footage foreplay to tender talks with Oscar, Adams plays soft yet determined Rose with absolute honesty. Edgy rule-breaker Norah will put Emily Blunt on the list for ‘Indie flicks seeking alternative quirky cool girl’. It is no surprise that Arkin wins us over as befuddled Dad with a hunger for half-baked start up companies from caramel corn to shrimp hustling. His fuzzy logic and eccentric ways will arouse out loud laughter while also achieving tremendous empathy from audiences who will feel his difficulties of raising two semi-lost daughters alone. However, it is wee Oscar (newcomer Jason Spevack) who we want to take home with us; a little dude with an imaginative and curious nature that inevitably leads to hilarious mess.

This disaster wrought cast of characters with endearing imperfections creates the ultimate dysfunctional family flick. Woven together by colourful zany sidekicks, including the one-armed vacuum dealer / saviour, a paranoid blood clinic attendant and a lost kitten – the story becomes perfectly quirky and totally endearing.