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Title: Little Miss Sunshine
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| CONSUMER ADVICE |
Parents, though the film is cute there is a fair amount of bad language. Recommended for ages 16 and up. |
Imagine a family having dinner. The husband talks about a "Nine Steps To Success" plan he has made into a book, which he plans to sell to the world and make millions. He is obsessed with success because he's had very little success of his own. A little girl watches a beauty pageant with intensity you rarely see in a child, as she dreams of a future that will never come. A teenage boy who appears to hate everyone has taken a vow of silence until he reaches his dream goal of becoming a test pilot. A grandpa eats chicken and snorts cocain, catching up on all the stupid mistakes he wished he had made as a kid. A uncle who attempted suicide failed in his attempt to kill himself, and now must learn to pick up the pieces in his life again. Then we have a mom who loves her family dearly, but finds herself about to explode trying to keep it together.
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This is the Hoover family, a family that is dysfunctional, all have dreams, and don't quite know what to do with themselves. They are all stuck in their daily routine, letting their problems and worries pile up until there is almost nowhere left to pile them. Then one day the daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin, who fully deserves her Best Supporting Actress nomination), gets a call from the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Due to a previous contender dropping out of the competition due to diet pills (they grow up so fast these days) Olive is now entered into the competition. With no money to get to the pageant by plane though the dad, Richard (Greg Kinnear), packs up the family for a road trip to California in order to get Olive to Little Miss Sunshine. No one in the family (save for Olive) is happy about this trip.
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Neither Grandpa (Alan Arkin) or son Dwayne (Paul Dano) want to go on the trip, but due to Uncle Frank's (Steve Carell) suicide attempt has to come along (because it would be irresponsible to leave these two alone in the house to watch Uncle Frank). With dear old mom Sheryl (Toni Collette) the only one who could possibly keep this family from killing each other, she too is along for the road trip. Things don't always go as smoothly as they should though. In what becomes one of the best running gags in the movie, the stick shift of their mini-bus breaks, so they have to constantly push the mini-bus until they can get it into the third gear. Grandpa gives Dwayne advice my grandpa would have never given me, as when he justifies his cocain addition by saying "When you're young you'd be dumb to snort cocain. When you're old you'd be dumb not to."
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These people have issues, but it doesn't matter. Really, it doesn't. This is not a movie about dysfunctional people who overcome their quirks to become "normal." No, this is a movie about people who are dysfunctional and come to terms with the fact that they, and everyone else around them, are dysfunctional too. The point is that they all love each other. Overcoming personal quirks is a battle you're destined to fail, and anyone who tells you otherwise is a moron. But quirks can be embraced and become redeeming features about you. One of these quirks is the way Frank runs. Truth be told, it's a silly looking run, one that you would easily mock if you saw it on the street. Once you see it a few times though, you realize that the run is a result of his attempts to get his life back on track, one foot after the other. It's just one of many examples of the excellent acting and character development found in the film.
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Of course, the reason all this works above all else is because the movie is funny. Looking back at what I wrote, I realize I must have made this movie sound like a drama. Well, there are some dramatic moments, but this is a comedy through and through. In lesser movies about road trips (I'm looking at you "RV") the characters would get themselves into situations that wanted to be funny but weren't. Most of the time these situations involve main characters getting covered in fecal matter, family deputes over little things like how they look, and the road trip itself would be the cover up for a big meeting dad has to go to.
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In this movie no one gets covered in unmentionables, the conversations about beauty are talked about frankly instead of stupidly, and the road trip really is about the pageant itself. If there is a flaw to the movie it's the beauty pageant itself. We have so much fun on the road, that when we get to the pageant itself it's kind of weird and creepy. Seeing all these seven year old kids walking around with makeup on and dressing in $500 dresses is certainly accurate, but disturbing none-the-less. When the movie ends there is sense of wanting to continue with the family to see where their life goes, but also a sense that they've come to grips with who they are, and though they will still be dysfunctional when they get home, they will also live better lives as a result of this trip. Once again the old saying that the destination is not as important as the journey itself proves true once again.
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