Little Miss Sunshine

I saw Little Miss Sunshine a week ago at the Sydney Film Festival, and the audience I saw it with loved it. There was a lot of laughter going on - especially at the hilarious ending. And amidst the jokes it deals smartly with it's theme of the value of chasing your dreams and being one of life's 'winners' versus valuing what you already have. Or put another way, it celebrates the joys of losing in a culture obsessed with winning.

I'm not going to go into detail about the plot, as the film hasn't been widely released yet. There are no huge plots twists, but I think you'll have more fun with this film if you don't know exactly where it's going.

As the film started I wasn't so sure about it. All the characters (apart from Toni Colette's perhaps) seemed to be written as being amusingly quirky in a predictable indie-comedy way. But as the movie went on it became easier to warm to them. I think it helped that the actors appeared to be having genuine fun together. These guys don't feel like much of a family at first, and I wondered a couple of times why these people would bother sticking together, but as things progress the strengths of this particular family unit become obvious. And just as all comedies should, it gets funnier as it goes on. I was pleased to see the script stayed true to it's messages all the way to the end, and didn't turn preachy or maudlin. The whole cast work excellently together, and I hope this film has all the success it deserves once it's released.

Conjuring endless joy & heartwarming feels by bringing together an array of flawed characters, piling them all up in a Volkswagen van and sending them on a road trip, Little Miss Sunshine is the story of a dysfunctional family rediscovering themselves & each other over the course of their journey as they learn the importance of being together through the thick n thin and reforge their relationships.

Directed by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris in what's their directorial debut, this is a sensibly written tragicomedy that right away acknowledges the flaws of the family members yet provides ample room for all of them to help each other grow & evolve. Each one is intriguing in their own ways, and their interactions have an organic feel to it as well, which only makes the drama all the more effective & entertaining.

The tone & treatment may be lighthearted but the story & characters packs enough dramatic weight & depth respectively and the filmmakers make sure both individual & collective on-screen efforts move things in the same direction, and the balance is sustained from start to finish. Performances are top-notch from everyone, including the young Abigail Breslin. And the climax brings the ride full circle with an amusing, uplifting & cathartic sequence.

Overall, Little Miss Sunshine is a wonderful amalgamation of skilful direction, smart writing & heartfelt performances that promises a pleasant time to all its viewers and delivers it in spades. An impressive & promising debut for its directing duo, it is one hell of a roller-coaster ride that treats its characters' imperfections with compassion & understanding, and is effortlessly elevated by honest inputs from its committed & talented cast. Absolutely worth your time & money.

Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette) is trying hold this crazy family together. Her brother Frank Ginsberg (Steve Carell) is just released after his suicide attempt. Her husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a bad motivational speaker who is always talking about winning except he's a loser himself. Her son Dwayne (Paul Dano) is tired of his family, and has vow to be silent. Grandpa Hoover (Alan Arkin) was kicked out of his nursing home for misbehaving. Finally daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) is so excited about getting into the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.

The reason this movie works is that I love these characters. I love everybody except for the dad. They are just so weirdly likable. They are the essence of an underdog story. I love this family, and it's not only for the cute little girl. I even love the VW van.

It is very rare to see a movie that can charm the hell out of an audience without the use of special effects, worn-out clichés and bombastic action set pieces these days. It's even more ridiculous to hope that you will see such a film for FREE. But that's exactly what happened to me tonight at a sneak preview of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE.

I "discovered" this movie right here at IMDb, having heard not a peep about it beforehand. By the time I finished watching the second trailer for the THIRD time, I was floored...and hooked. Luckily, the Bulletin Boards steered me toward the proper link to access sneak passes for tonight's showing, and all I can say is that it will not pain me one bit to pay for the privilege of seeing this gem a second time.

Assembling the best and most unlikeliest of ensemble casts you may probably see all year, SUNSHINE on the face of it is a relatively (pun intended) simple story. Little seven-year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin) has one wish in life: to be considered for the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant in Redondo Beach, CA. When her big chance comes at the most unexpected time, it's up to her unbelievably fractured family to pull themselves together and make it happen for her, no matter what it takes.

And what it takes is a sad, painful, tragic and yet unendingly hilarious trek in a barely operational VW bus from Albequerque, NM to the Pageant. And although getting there is only half the fun and family drama, you have got to see what happens to believe it when they finally arrive and Olive gets to "do her thing." The strong cast sounds not a single false note, and when the more touching moments arrive, they don't seem forced the way they would in most other big-budget behemoths, because these moments are truly earned. But WHAT a collection of characters this is. Greg Kinnear is letter-perfect as Olive's judgmental, failed motivational-speaker father; Steve Carell finds new shades of darkest despair and human comedy as her suicidal gay uncle, a leading Proust scholar; Paul Dano does amazing things with little more than facial expressions as Olive's older brother who's deep into Nietzche and a vow of absolute silence, and Alan Arkin, though he has played this kind of role with both hands tied behind his back and his eyes closed, still shines like a crazy diamond as her cantankerous and hedonistic grandfather.

And barely holding this motley crew together is Toni Collette, who amazes by playing a mother again and yet manages not to portray the role exactly the same way, (you might recall her Oscar-nominated turn as Haley Joel Osment's put-upon mom in THE SIXTH SENSE.) I'm not at all familiar with the work of the two directors, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, or the writer, Michael Arndt, but they have definitely raised the indie film bar with this effort. Not a single moment is wasted; not a single scene is in this film without having a reason for being there, and it's all character-driven. There's also nothing fluffy about it - commentary about everything from how twisted our pop culture can be, to how our drive for being #1 winners can blind us to all of the things that are the most important are all there under the bittersweet laughs and tears for the audience to discover.

I can't recommend this one highly enough. And I can't wait to see it again.

Most people have commented on the brilliance of the acting in this movie. I agree with all they said. Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear and Alan Arkin are as good as we would expect them to be. Add sensitive and characterful performances from Paul Dano & Steve Carell. Spotlight the amazing Abigail Breslin as a believable little girl trying to break into the Child Glamour Business through pageants like "Little Miss Sunshine." It was when I contrasted her less than movie-star appearance with all the adult-glam of the other lacquered and made-up girls that I realized the subliminal message here.

Olive's striptease is an honest (but disturbing) expose of what these pageants really are. It's only when Olive's family join her in making this into a game that we can begin cheering for her while being horrified by the hypocrisy of the whole pageant-thing.

A brilliant movie!