SUNSHINE CLEANING
An insightful, redemptive comedy for adults willing to face hard truths.
Should You Watch It?
SUNSHINE CLEANING is a funny, insightful character study about two wounded sisters who find unexpected purpose in a grim line of work. The cast, led by Amy Adams, brings energy and sympathy to characters who struggle with sinfulness, family wounds, and feelings of failure. The story eventually moves toward redemption, including positive, overt Christian references.
That redemption comes through a great deal of adult content. The movie includes strong foul language, sexual references, lying, marijuana use, and disturbing images connected to suicide, murder, accidental death, and other corpses. Its best moments are poignant, but they do not make the film suitable for a family audience.
If you are an adult who can thoughtfully engage its mature material, WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESRose Lorkowski is a 33-year-old single mother working as a maid. Her younger sister, Norah, struggles to keep a job while living with their father, Joe, whose sales schemes have repeatedly failed.
When Rose’s married lover, Mac, suggests a lucrative crime-cleanup business, Rose persuades Norah to join her. Cleaning up after suicides, murders, and other deaths gives the sisters an unexpected sense of self-worth—but also forces them to face the wounds and family secrets separating them.
Is It Any Good?
Four stars means this is a highly successful film, even though its subject matter is grim. SUNSHINE CLEANING is funny, insightful, and emotionally perceptive. The cast seems to enjoy playing these sympathetic losers, but the performances also know when to emphasize the script’s dramatic high points.
The story ends on a light, redemptive note. Its comic misadventures and painful family struggles lead toward a sense of renewal without erasing the characters’ problems.
The Worldview
SUNSHINE CLEANING presents a light Christian, redemptive worldview. Its central characters struggle with sinfulness, alienation, and a heartbreaking family secret, yet their suffering and comic misadventures eventually open a path toward redemption. The film includes some positive, overt Christian references and treats renewed self-worth as something that can grow through hardship and honest confrontation.
The movie also contains strong capitalist content, along with strong pagan elements and lighter Romantic elements. Sexual sin, lying, adultery, marijuana use, and other mature behavior are part of the story’s moral landscape. Some of these actions are treated as wrong, while lying is justified in at least one instance. Brief homosexual references also appear in a subplot.
At its best, the film recognizes that suffering can expose wounds and lead people toward reconciliation. Its redemptive vision is poignant, but it remains surrounded by material that requires discerning adult judgment. Scripture says, “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Light Christian, redemptive worldview with some strong capitalist content, marred by some strong pagan elements and some light Romantic elements, including strong foul language, sexual references and lying as people struggle with their sinfulness, plus brief homosexual references in a subplot; 36 obscenities (including many “f” words), five strong profanities and eight light profanities, plus crude jokes about child’s illegitimate birth out of wedlock; strong, sometimes bloody images of aftermaths of violence as people commit suicide, are killed or die accidentally, plus car crashes through store window and a house burns down; depicted fornication in one scene, implied adultery, lesbian hugs another woman closely; rear male nudity, upper male nudity, and woman shown in bra a couple times or so; alcohol use and drunkenness; smoking and marijuana use; and, lying justified.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Rose and Norah gain self-worth while confronting painful family wounds. How can suffering reveal what needs healing rather than merely define us?
Psalm 34:18 · Romans 5:3–5The film includes sexual sin and implied adultery. Why does Scripture treat faithfulness as both a personal and relational responsibility?
Exodus 20:14 · Hebrews 13:4The story moves toward redemption through suffering. What is the difference between feeling regret and turning toward genuine repentance?
2 Corinthians 7:10 · Psalm 51:10–12The characters sometimes justify lying. Can a good goal make a dishonest action right? What does Scripture call us to instead?
Ephesians 4:25 · Colossians 3:9The Final Word
SUNSHINE CLEANING is a funny, affecting character study with a genuinely redemptive heart. Its strong language, sexual material, drug use, and disturbing death-related content make it unsuitable for children and young teens. For discerning adults, the answer is WORTH THE TRIP — ADULTS ONLY. For family viewing, choose from.
