Little Miss Sunshine "A"

Sarcasm Is The Refuge Of Losers!

It’s perfect that I’m writing about family dysfunction on Christmas Eve. Because isn’t that the “true” meaning of Christmas? Dysfunctional family members?

“Little Miss Sunshine” is a simple movie with a simple premise with mild dysfunction at it’s core. It’s also one of the best comedic movies of the past couple of years. It has an amazing cast that all fit into their roles perfectly.

The film stars Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear as a married couple who are both way too busy trying to make money that they neglect their kids (not intentionally). Kinnear is an unsuccessful motivational speaker who has come up with “9 Steps” for success and is always spouting Tony Robbin’s like speak about winners and losers. Kinnear’s father lives with them and is played beautifully by Alan Arkin. This role could have been played as a stereotype with him yelling and screaming at everyone etc. But while he does do that he is also a very sweet and loving caretaker to 7 year old Olive. Olive is played by Abigail Breslin and she is also so sweet and loving but blithely oblivious to her families dysfunction. Rounding out the impressive and wonderful cast is Steve Carell as Collette’s gay professor brother who has just tried to kill himself. And their son has taken a “vow of silence” until he gets accepted as a military test pilot. And you think your family is jacked up? I do have to mention that the two standout performances in a stellar cast filled with great performances were Toni Collette and Abigail Breslin. They were both mesmerizing to watch. Collette has the ability to absolutely morph into any character she is playing and always seem to make it fresh. She has played mothers before but every performance is different.

The family portrayal is so smooth and natural I could actually believe that this is a real family. When a call comes that young Olive has been accepted into the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant in So. Cal the road trip is on. They pile in the bright yellow VW van and they set off from Albuquerque for Redondo Beach. Did I mention they only have two days to get there? Hilarity ensues but not your standard yucks that you would expect from a road pic. While the laughs flow so does the sorrow. In fact there is a large portion of tragedy in this film but somewhere, somehow the comedic bits overcome everything. There are a few scenes that are so damn funny and unexpected, I have to say that I was shocked. They just sneak up on you but when they do they are lethal.

The film is shot beautifully with nice shots of the road as they are making their way across 3 states. The editing is very good and the music was perfectly understated.

However, some people were bothered that there is so much swearing in this film and if it was eliminated then it could have been a great family film. I have a few things to say about that. Life is often not “family friendly” and if psycho parents want to take their kids to family pics then they can go see any one of the 50 cartoons that come out a year. Fuck em! It’s amazing to me that “bad language” is cited as the main reason that the film is rated “R”, but what about grandpa doing drugs? What about the porn mags? What about the crime against children know as beauty pageants? Suffice it to say that they do get to the show on time but what a fucked up show. I mean watch this film and tell me that those little girls don’t look like midgets in drag. Pretty fucking scary.

Anyway, watch this excellent movie, you’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll never look at your family the same again. That might be a good thing.