MovieChat Forums > Sunshine Cleaning (2009) Discussion > Baby shower

Baby shower

posted 7 years ago by snepts
3 replies | jump to latest

I really like this movie and give it a generous 8. May not deserve it but I'm in a giving mood, haha.
But the one thing I didn't like, and it crops up all the time, everywhere.
And that's when in a movie that's not really a comedy, they toss in some clueless and insensitive characters such as the women at the baby shower. I mean Adams is some down on her luck working class woman, but she has more smarts and dignity than these other better off women.
It always seems like a cheap and convenient way to contrast the protagonist's inherent goodness against unbelievable straw people. It's too easy. I mean, they could be snooty or mean, but to be so dumb isn't realistic. Ans as I say, it's a cliche that comes up all the time, people who are boorish and self-centered just to make the star look a lot better. Not realistic.

I'm not a woman much less Deanna Durbin, but the old-time glam-shot appeals to me.

[–] ricky_says_hi 7 years ago

I didn't think they seemed snooty, just a little alarmed that she's not doing conventional work. But I think it's important that they have that attitude in the scene. Rose is all about going there and impressing her old school friends. It's there that she realises she loves what she does at Sunshine Cleaning, and doesn't care what the ladies at the shower think. Throughout the film Rose is a bit sensitive about what other people think of her, so this shows that she's got a lot of positive self esteem now. She can proudly say she cleans up after crime scenes even if her friends aren't exactly impressed.

[–] snepts 7 years ago

Hi. I appreciate the feedback. Maybe snooty isn't the right word, but they seemed kind of clueless, or maybe - dim-witted. In a flat-out comedy, it's not unusual to have silly people who aren't believable in real life, but this movie was pretty serious with a lot of comedic touches. I just thought it was a little easy to make this gaggle of girls to look so uniformly unsympathetic (to AA's character and to the viewer). I think it might have been more effective to have a group of, maybe, smart but hard-hearted women, rather than just dumb. But I'd love to see this scene again. Maybe I'm reading it wrong.
I don't always know people that well. Back when American Beauty was a new film, I told a friend of mine I didn't think Annette Bening's character was believable. She seemed too shrill, brittle and materialistic. My friend laughed and said he knew people who are like that, and now I think he's right. (I know someone like this, and I often think she would give you the shirt off her back in the right circumstance, but she wants her house to be absolutely clean and perfect, and no matter how old or tired I might be, I look GREAT ! Haha)
But thanks for responding. Sunshine Cleaning is such an unusual movie. It's not a GREAT movie, but it has so many nuances, and we get to sympathize with people in the working underclass. Blunt and Adams are gorgeous, I love Alan Arkin's voice and attitude (I like his son, too. He's sort of a chip off the old block, haha). I really liked the scene where Blunt is on the train trestle. It's a bit much, but it's very arresting. I can imagine how those old trestles hold up over a long time, and they also seem so fragile, and I guess Blunt's character is too.
Thanks again.

I'm not a woman much less Deanna Durbin, but the old-time glam-shot appeals to me.

[–] BlackHoleSun77 (30) 7 years ago

I think the point of that scene was to make her realize that she does not need to live to make an impression on others. Making an impression on others it's not what it's cracked up to be usually. She did not need their approval.