The evil of banality

Two that straddle the line between recommended and not:

SUNSHINE CLEANING (B-minus) - Oh, you want to cheer for Amy Adams and Emily Blunt as Albuquerque sisters who go into business cleaning up crime scenes while struggling to make ends meet. But it's difficult to escape the idea that these are two actresses slumming in a film in which sappy overwhelms smart.

Adams plays a noble single mom, sleeping with a married cop who won't leave his wife but at least hooks her up with the crime-cleanup work, even though she doesn't have the resources or the licensing to handle the job. She gets child-care help from her wacky father -- Alan Arkin in an overly familiar role -- who cooks up hare-brained schemes in a stale Disney sort of way. Her son has an inquiring mind of a soul-searching angel, and he, too, is more Opie Taylor than real kid. Nothing much digs below the surface.

Throw in a one-armed store owner with a heart of gold, and the quaintness is just too much to bear. It's a harmless hour and a half, but it's a missed opportunity for a meaningful drama. 

HANNAH ARENDT (C+) - More of a lecture than a movie, this chronicles the German Jewish philosopher and her controversial coverage of the Adolf Eichmann trial in 1961 for the New Yorker, in which she finds the banal humanity in the Nazi mastermind (or, as she says, his "shocking mediocrity").

This is surprisingly stagnant, with mostly wooden actors (save for Barbara Sukowa in the title role) emoting with their faces and reciting writerly lines, in an overly dignified "Masterpiece Theater" manner. At times this is literally as exciting as watching someone write an epic five-part article, typing away on the typewriter; or, god forbid, someone editing the article; or even, yes, someone reading the article.

The story finally finds some footing and gains a bit of momentum in the second half, when Arendt is accused of blaming the Jews in part for their own demise. But director/writer Margarethe von Trotta doesn't quite make this movie matter enough. Arendt is a fascinating character; here, she comes off as a chain-smoking bore.