By Yong Shu Hoong

DO NOT confuse our movie of the week, Sunshine Cleaning, with 2006's Little Miss Sunshine, just because they have the same word in their titles.

On the other hand, any mix-up is understandable. Both films share the same producers and are modest-budget sleeper hits featuring veteran actor Alan Arkin as a quirky but doting grandfather.

New Zealand-born Christine Jeffs, who directed 2003's Sylvia and 2001's Rain, stitches together a tender, heartwarming story in Sunshine Cleaning, with help from a strong cast she assembled.

Amy Adams (Doubt) plays a single mum Rose, who's struggling to raise an imaginative son with issues at school, while trying to find the love and self-esteem that constantly elude her.

With encouragement from a cop (Steve Zahn), with whom she is having an adulterous affair, she decides to take the leap and set up her own business specialising in crime-scene clean-up services.

Adams should be commended for playing her role with expert subtlety.

At the same time, she is able to bring across a lot of complex emotions, as her character deals with different predicaments - from interacting with her sometimes temperamental father (Arkin) to standing up to her more successful former schoolmates.

But it is Emily Blunt (The Devil Wears Prada, The Young Victoria) who steals the show in supporting role as Rose's bungling younger sister, Norah.

She puts her comedic skills to great use - she's hilarious in any scenario, whether she's throwing a disparaging glance or recoiling at another stinking, bloody mess that Norah must clean up at a murder or suicide site.

Along the way, she befriends a paranoid woman, Lynn (Mary Lynn Rajskub), who thinks Norah's got a thing for her.

There is much to like about this bittersweet comedy that, as aptly described in the film's publicity materials, "deals with life, one mess at a time".

And just as how an ominous service that cleans up blood and biohazard waste from crime scenes is chirpily named Sunshine Cleaning, we can be optimistic that the offbeat family of Rose and Norah will survive tragedies and setbacks from the past and in the future.

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