SUNSHINE CLEANING (2009) (***)

Biohazard and crime scene clean-up is a growing niche industry, says Amy Adams' character Rose in SYLVIA director Christine Jeffs' dramedy about just that subject. For a single mother, the pay is good and she gets to tell former classmates that she's a business owner instead of a plain old maid. The blood and brain matter is just the drawback.

Rose is trying to make more money to send her son Oscar (Jason Spevack, HOLLYWOODLAND) to a private school. She recruits her slacker sister Norah (Emily Blunt, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA) to help. As first they know nothing about the dangers and regulations of what they are doing, but the kind man named Winston (Clifton Collins Jr., CAPOTE) at the supply store helps fill them in. And soon their in biohazard suits and getting better and better clients.

As Rose's new career grows, her personal life spirals out of control. Her son is in trouble at school. She learned about the crime scene cleanup biz from her boyfriend Mac (Steve Zahn, HAPPY, TEXAS), a married cop. Her father Joe (Alan Arkin, LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE) is a bit of a huckster, who still misses his dead wife who died tragically years before.

Both Adams and Blunt are wonderful. We instantly believe they are sisters from their closeness to their brutal honesty. Adams' Rose has felt like she needed to take care of her little sister since their mother's death. Blunt hasn't really gotten over the tragedy and follows the estranged daughter of one of the dead women they clean up after. She tries to tell Lynn (Mary Lynn Rajskub (TV's 24) about what happened to her mom, but she can't find the nerve.

Megan Holley's script has a loose plot that is driven by the characters and not plot points. She does a great job at hinting about how things will turn out without tying neat, but forced, little bows around the various subplots. Some believability is lost with the time the son is pulled from school and the amount of screen time dedicated to the sisters' dead mother, especially for two girls with little problem cleaning up bloody crime scenes.

At one point, Rose says that she likes her new job because she gets to come into families' lives at difficult times and help out. With her life in such shambles, maybe she needs to accept some help herself. But when it comes to her sister, she should still keep an eye on her.