Sunshine Cleaning

• Condition: New
• Format: DVD
• Anamorphic; NTSC

MY SUMMER OF LOVE - DVD MovieThere's a tantalizing touch of irony in the title My Summer of Love, since this superbly-acted relationship drama reveals much more than love between its curiously fascinating characters. As directed by Polish-born Pawel Pawlikowski (a veteran of British TV documentaries whose previous film was the praiseworthy Last Resort), this unconventional love story is an engrossing exercise in mood and psychology, set in a bleak but invitingly sunlit village in Yorkshire. It's there that lonely, working-class teenager Mona (Nathalie Press) encounters rebellious rich-girl Tamsin (Emily Blunt), and their unlikely friendship grows intimate... but is it really love? Or is Tamsin (who was suspended from boarding school) merely indulging her clever penchant for emotional manipulation during a lazy summer of! privilege? Mona's born-again Christian brother (Paddy Considine) factors into the film's languorous mood and complex emotional landscape; this is a film in which love and loss are inseparably intertwined, and motivations remain partially hidden, making it all the more powerful when guarded truths are revealed. In addition to being a compelling study of class distinctions, My Summer of Love includes scenes of anxious menace and some unexpected surprises, packing more into 84 minutes than most films manage in two hours or more. Pawlikowski was listed among "10 directors to watch" in a 2005 article in Variety, and My Summer of Love validates that acclaim. --Jeff ShannonTake dead aim at action-packed laughs with this killer comedy featuring an all-star cast. Emily Blunt steals the show as Rose, a free-spirited thief who finds herself in the cross hairs of a world-class assassin named Victor (Bill Nighy). But when Victor spares Rose’s life, the lon! ely hearted hitman sets off an outrageous chain of events that! turn bo th their worlds upside down. Joined by a gun-toting apprentice (Rupert Grint), the unlikely trio teams up to thwart the murderous intentions of Victor’s unhappy client. Take dead aim at action-packed laughs with this killer comedy featuring an all-star cast. Emily Blunt steals the show as Rose, a free-spirited thief who finds herself in the cross hairs of a world-class assassin named Victor (Bill Nighy). But when Victor spares Rose’s life, the lonely hearted hitman sets off an outrageous chain of events that turn both their worlds upside down. Joined by a gun-toting apprentice (Rupert Grint), the unlikely trio teams up to thwart the murderous intentions of Victor’s unhappy client. Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend star in the lavish historical drama, THE YOUNG VICTORIA. Resolved to establish her authority over those who rule in her stead, a young and inexperienced Queen Victoria (Blunt) draws strength from the love of Albert (Friend), the handsome prince who’s sto! len her heart. Based on the courtship and early reign of England’s longest-serving monarch, THE YOUNG VICTORIA is a majestic tale of romance, intrigue and power.


Stills from The Young Victoria (Click for larger image)

THE AFFAIR BETWEEN A POLITICIAN AND A BALLERINA IS AFFECTED BY MYSTERIOUS FORCES KEEPING THE LOVERS APART.Matt Damon is doing things a lot of top movie stars are sometimes scared to do: spreading his image thin among a range of roles, directors, and material! . His forays away from the huge successes of, say, the Bourne movies or the Ocean's series which have highlighted his fully realized strengths as a buff action hero who can also slip effortlessly into natural comic charm aren't exactly risky. His image as a leading-man movie star is pretty much sealed, but in movies like The Informant, Invictus, Hereafter, True Grit, and others, he's stretching some different muscles that take him closer to character-actor territory. That has largely been a good thing for his fans, if not for his box-office stats. The Adjustment Bureau takes him somewhere in between--he's in leading-man territory with the Damon charisma in full bore and giving his all to a story that needs the toned actorly muscle he provides.

Based on a novelette by science-fiction icon Philip K. Dick, The Adjustment Bureau exposes a cadre of people who are either superhuman or nonhumans and control the world by m! agically influencing the fate of every single person in it. Da! mon play s David Norris, an aspiring politician who rose from working-class roots in Brooklyn (a not-so-closeted skeleton that sometimes comes back to haunt him) to wealth and the likely promise of high office. Unfortunately, David takes some liberties with his fate that don't correspond with the narrative laid out by "the Chairman," the entity in charge of the Adjustment Bureau autocrats whose matching fedoras are none-too-subtle symbols for wings. The movie evades any mention of religion, but those hats and references to the Chairman are huge winks. Emily Blunt is the equally appealing presence who screws up the Chairman's plan in concert with Norris. They fall for each other hard again and again, constantly thwarting and confounding the bureau's best-laid adjusting tricks at every turn. Though it is often simplistic in its plot contrivances, the movie is nifty, clever, nimbly paced, and filled with ingenious special effects. Especially impressive is the recurring motif of doors th! at are virtual wormholes--a closet that leads to the middle of Yankee stadium, an Escher-like maze of conference rooms that constantly double back on themselves (shades of the dizzying door sequence in Monsters, Inc.). Another cool visual prop are the plain bound books bureau functionaries carry that are filled with intricate, animated schematic diagrams that chart the course of a life and how it interacts with others. John Slattery, Anthony Mackie, and Terence Stamp round out the uniformly excellent cast headed by Damon and Blunt, and with the slick production design and inventive effects, the glossy performances go a long way in adjusting up any dramatic shortcomings The Adjustment Bureau may have improperly calibrated. --Ted FryAcademy Award® Nominee Amy Adams, Golden Globe® Winner Emily Blunt, and Academy Award Winner®Alan Arkin find an unexpected way to turn their lives around in this “colorful, refreshingly quirky comic drama” (Leah Rozen, ! People). Desperate to get her son into a better school, single! mom Ros e (Amy Adams) persuades her slacker sister Norah (Emily Blunt) to join her in the crime scene cleanup business to make some quick cash. With the help of their ill-fated salesman father (Alan Arkin), they climb the ranks in a very dirty job, finding themselves up to their elbows in murders, suicides, and… specialized situations. But underneath the dust and grime they also come to discover a true respect for one another, and create a brighter future for the entire Lorkowski family.If Sunshine Cleaning occasionally recalls Sundance sensations like Little Miss Sunshine and Happy, Texas--note the cookie-cutter title and casting of Alan Arkin--it still offers an irresistible charm all its own. They don't look much alike, but Amy Adams and Emily Blunt, who both appeared opposite Tom Hanks in Charlie Wilson's War, offer convincing, heartfelt performances as Albuquerque sisters who barely get along (all the more impressive considering Blunt's upp! er-crust British credentials). Single mother and former cheerleader Rose (Adams), the optimistic and semi-responsible one, cleans houses for a living. Norah (Blunt), the pessimistic and irresponsible one, lives with their father, Joe (Arkin), a loving grandfather and lousy salesman, and attempts to earn her keep as a waitress. When both women find themselves in need of a quick influx of cash, Rose convinces Norah to join her as a crime-scene cleaner, a job her married, police-officer lover (an underused Steve Zahn) assures her pays well. He's right, but the ladies find the work even more emotionally demanding than physically repulsive, especially once they become entangled with Lynn (24's Mary Lynn Rajskub), a lonely blood-bank worker, and Winston (Capote's Clifton Collins Jr.), a one-armed cleaning-supply salesman. Megan Holley's script may be a mite overstuffed, but the pace never lags, and Christine Jeffs' follow-up to Sylvia packs an emotional! punch that Little Miss Sunshine--arguably, the funni! er film- -lacked, even if the Oscar-winning Arkin plays a similarly unconventional grandfather figure. Then again: few do it better. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Stills from Sunshine Cleaning (Click for larger image)