BEFORE: Rounding up horses is an odd job - and so is cleaning up crime scenes. And another Birthday SHOUT-out (#58) to Amy Adams, last seen in "Julie & Julia". Linking from "The Misfits", Eli Wallach was in "Keeping the Faith" with Ben Stiller, who was in "Night at the Museum 2" (which I still need to watch) with Amy Adams.
THE PLOT: In order to raise the tuition to send her young son to private school, a mom starts an unusual business -- a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service -- with her unreliable sister.
AFTER: This one seemed pretty simple and one-dimensional at first, but thinking back on it, I was able to find some deeper meaning in it. One on level, it's just about a pair of sisters who have screwed up at several other jobs, who then find success, or at least partial success, in cleaning up after deceased people.
But then I realized that the sisters (and their father) represent a fractured family, still dealing with the loss of their mother years before. The lead character is having an affair with a married man, who doesn't seem likely to leave his wife, and the other sister is more of the renegade/Goth-chick, but both seem to have low self-esteem. The younger sister's form of therapy appears to be hanging out on railroad trestles and screaming.
It's clear that both sisters deserve better, the only question becomes, are they going to get it? So the cleaning of houses after people have died could be seen as a form of therapy, a way of getting closer to their mother, perhaps. The younger sister seems to have a few more issues going on, which get hinted at but not resolved.
Still, even with added interpretation, I didn't get a lot out of this film - maybe there wasn't much to get?
Also starring Alan Arkin (last seen in "America's Sweethearts"), Steve Zahn (last seen in "Crimson Tide"), Emily Blunt (last seen in "The Great Buck Howard"), Mary Lynn Rajskub (also last seen in "Julie & Julia"), with cameos from Paul Dooley (last seen in "Popeye"), Eric Christian Olsen (last seen in "License to Wed"). Oh, and Clifton Collins Jr. (last seen in "Capote")
RATING: 3 out of 10 mattresses
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