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16 發光的城市 A R O U N D T O W N FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 2010 • TAIPEI TIMES FILM REVIEW ‘Sunshine Cleaning’ has all the right ingredients for an offbeat indie unshine Cleaning, a quirky life as a maid. She is having an affair Arkin as Joe Lorkowski, a character comedy, but somehow the indie picture staring Amy with police officer Mac (Steve Zahn), who has the wisdom of the deeply parts don’t add up Adams, originally released who she knows deep in her heart will flawed personality. Although the role S in 2008, has finally made it never leave his wife Heather, a former is not quite up to the same levels to Taiwan for a mainstream release, schoolmate. As Rose is in desperate of weirdness that he displayed as possibly with the idea of picking up on need money to pay her son’s tuition, Grandpa Edwin Hoover in Little Miss BY IAN BartHOLOmeW some of the massive publicity which Mac helps her connect with the crime Sunshine, it is still full of a skewed STAFF REPORTER surrounded the release of Julie & scene cleanup business, and Sunshine vitality, and hints at depths that the Julia (2009) earlier this year, which Cleaning is born. Rose is insecure, efficient and sometimes all too slick brought Adams to prominence with having failed to provide herself with performances of Adams and Blunt fail local audiences. It also reveals to us a husband, or become part of an to provide. that Adams is a more sophisticated acceptable profession that will put Sunshine Cleaning is a deeply actress than her role as Julie Powell her on the same social footing as her enjoyable film to watch, though gave her the opportunity to show. high school friends. Her ambition is it promises more than it actually This is an old-fashioned film in to be a real estate agent. Her efforts delivers. It has good intentions, but that it relies heavily on a fine script to achieve a solid, tiresome middle- the film is too programmatic, the and interesting characters to drive the class respectability are hampered by careful nuts and bolts of its structure story forward, but it also has a gloss her slacker sister Norah (Emily Blunt) all proudly on display. Any organic of indie chic about it, which links and father (Alan Arkin), a small-time unity, and the satisfying feeling that it up with recent hits such as Little scam artist. goes along with that, are lost in this Miss Sunshine and Juno. For better The messy business of crime display of technical prowess. or for worse, it doesn’t have the same scene cleanup serves as a remarkably PHOTOS COURTESY OF FLASH FORWARD ENTERTAINMENT edginess as either of these films, and its good springboard for Megan Holley’s indie appeal is something of a pose. script, which opts for a thoughtful Sunshine Cleaning opens with humor rather than picking up easy a man walking into a gun shop with gross out jokes. The main complaint SUNSHINE CLEANING a 20 gauge shotgun cartridge in his about Sunshine Cleaning is that it pocket. He asks to inspect some guns, takes on too much, and a subplot DIRECTED BY: then uses one to blow his head off. that involves Norah tracking down CHRISTINE JEFFS The resultant mess is clearly a tragedy the daughter of a deceased woman for someone, but it also represents whose house she helps Rose clean STARRING: a business opportunity for those out is left hanging mid-movie. It is AMY ADAMS (ROSE LORKOWSKI), specializing in the cleanup operation. a sign of the film’s quality that even EMILY BLUNT (NORAH The rest of the film follows this loose end vibrates with dramatic LORKOWSKI), AlaN ARKIN (JOE this formula of tragedy leading to potential before it is unceremoni- LORKOWSKI), JASON SPEVacK opportunity, and we know that ously dropped. For the rest, it (OScaR LORKOWSKI), STEVE ZAHN despite all the obstacles that the main sometimes seems that Holley is trying (Mac), MaRY LYNN RajSKUB character faces in getting her life to incorporate every possible device (LYNN), CLIFTON COllINS JR together, she will inevitably succeed. and character type ever used in light (WINSTON), AMY REDFORD This makes the tragedy of life just a comedy into this film. There are some (HEATHER) little too facile for the film’s own good, excellent moments, and just when RUNNING TIME: and fatally undermines its attempts to you hope the director will pursue 91 MINUTES achieve real indie street cred. a particular line, it is dropped and Rose Lorkowski (Amy Adams) another device is introduced. TAIWAN RELEASE: is messy is a former high school cheerleader One of the highlights of Sunshine TODAY now eking out a somewhat precarious Cleaning is the performance of Alan Life COMPILED BY IAN BartHOLOmeW AND HO YI OTHER RELEASES Donkey Xote action feature. The world has been 鎂) provides more than adequate rather surprisingly made with a young woman with Down It is hard to imagine why this ravaged by an infectious virus, and eye candy. the sponsorship of Bangkok’s syndrome who lives with her 2007 Spanish animation, now it is up to Alice to take down the BTS Skytrain system. With the mother running a small shop in dubbed into English, has ended people responsible. Guns, knives city playing a significant role, Buenos Aires. The relationship up on these shores, other than and explosive devices abound as Bangkok Traffic (Love) Story is carefully crafted by director as fodder for those who thought Alice fights her way through a vast lends itself to comparison with Marcos Carnevale, and features 陳駿霖 that Shrek Forever After was underground complex to complete Arvin Chen’s ( ) Au Revoir excellent acting by veteran 一頁台北 funny. Even the trailer for the film her mission. Taipei ( ). While this Norma Aleandro as the mother announces that this film is “from is basically a fluffy romantic and Alejandra Manzo as the title the producers who saw Shrek,” drama about young people character. In allowing Anita, for a joking reference to its stylistic overcoming the many obstacles all her disability, to be a real plagiarism of that successful that modern city life places in character with both good and bad franchise. There is even a donkey the way of establishing a strong elements, the film has more to whose resemblance to Shrek’s and meaningful relationship, the offer than a short synopsis best friend seems rather more Saying Good-bye, Oneday acting and storytelling are solid might suggest. Ajami and the crucial role of nighttime than coincidental. Based on the (Sayonara itsuka) Superior Ultraman 8 Brothers A nominee for the 2010 Oscar in story of Don Quixote, its riffs on maintenance workers on the Japanese film made by South Ultraman is a venerable Japanese the Best Foreign Film category, the complex novel are not without Skytrain system fits snugly into Korean director John Lee fantasy anime that got started way Ajami has taken a long time wit, but in trying to bridge the the overall texture of the film. that primarily takes place in back in 1979, the stories revolving to be given a local release. It is gulf between literary humor and Thailand. The complexity pretty around an array of superhero a Middle Eastern take on Paul DreamWorks antics, it ties itself much ends there, for Saying characters who battle monsters Haggis’ Crash, but without the in knots and forfeits most of its Good-bye, Oneday is really a and other evil forces. The hokey absurd coincidences and heavy- potential appeal. fairly straightforward piece of effects have now acquired a handed sentimentality. Directed romantic melodrama about a by first-time feature filmmakers retro chic, and the massive man, Higashigaito Yutaka, who merchandising machine continues Yaron Shani and Scandar Copti, chooses professional success over one an Israeli Jew and the other to surround these simple toy- love, only to find that his high- like figures. In this most recent a Palestinian, the film presents powered job is no substitute. It a multi-stranded story about life incarnation, Ultraman Mebius goes without saying that Yutake slips through into an alternate in the mixed Arab and Jewish has the opportunity to reprise his neighborhood from which the film universe that is under threat and youthful passion. He meets her is spurred by a mysterious “red- takes its name. Evenhanded and 25 years later in a Bangkok hotel; thoughtful, the vision it presents shoed girl” to awaken seven other both discover that the fires of heroes to save it. is bleak, with misunderstanding love have not been extinguished. and violence tearing apart the The Stool Pigeon (線人) The plot is full of holes, but lives of normal people who aspire Saying Good-bye, Oneday is Two Cities Film Festival Dante Lam (林超賢) is back in to little more than survival. At 120 stylishly put together and contains (兩個城市影展) minutes, Ajami is a little long, and yet another hard-hitting cops- superior acting by J-pop idol Miho The Two Cities Film Festival (兩 the jittery handheld camerawork and-robbers flick with a slightly Nakayama and veteran TV actress Flowers 個城市影展) comprises six films can become annoying, but these different twist. This time the Yuriko Ishida. by veteran documentary director are minor complaints against an heart of the story is the police A film by veteran Japanese Dong Cheng-liang (董振良), who outstanding film that works at informant, a much-overlooked director Norihiro Koizumi, is noted for exploring social both topical and dramatic levels. character in the movie detective’s Flowers is a celebration of arsenal.

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