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I have to give scriptwriter Michael Arndt credit for his insightful screenplay. He manages to skewer just about everything and everyone. In Little Miss Sunshine (the name of a beauty pageant), the Hoover family takes an unexpected trip in a broken-down Volkswagen bus. Shades of the Partridge Family, but this turns out to be the family trip from Hades. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris bring the ensemble cast to an unusual conclusion in a roundabout way. The American Southwest is part of the film and much is made of the smallness of the family traveling van against the vastness of the countryside, which is really this family against the world. 

The story has Dad (Greg Kinnear) as an inspirational speaker who is looking for a book publisher. Mom (Toni Collette) chauffeurs everyone around plus keeps the family fed. Son Dwayne (Paul Dano) hasn’t spoken in six months and can’t wait to leave home to join the Air Force Academy. Daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) lives and breaths beauty pageants and can’t decide whether to eat ice cream or not. Grandpa (Alan Arkin) got thrown out of a retirement home for drug use and now lives with the family. Enter Uncle Frank (Steve Carell) who tried to commit suicide and comes to be with the family while he recovers. Ah, yes, the typical American family. Watching them try to eat a chicken dinner while sniping at each other would put anyone on a diet. 

It’s at this point that the phone call comes putting Olive in the contest 800 miles away.  The family ends up going together in their old van. Obstacles include a broken clutch, no air conditioning and everyone just barely keeping their tempers under control. Can they make it to the pageant in time? Will Dwayne ever speak? Will Grandpa ever clean up his language?  Does the word “sane” mean anything here? 

The film builds slowly as we get to meet the characters. Dad tries to inspire everyone, but ends up irritating. Grandpa mind is perpetually in the gutter, while Frank starts looking like the only normal one there. Mom is at her wits end most of the time, Dwayne hates everyone and Olive is sweet and bubbly. Each character has a challenge to meet and how they cope is part of the film. The story doesn’t go exactly the way you may think it would and there are surprises, one of which is how they keep that old Volkswagen on the road with only two gears and questionable brakes. 

Laughs are generated by unexpected events, one of which is Dad trying to place his motivational programs on everything that comes along. Another is the children’s beauty pageant where little girls look like downsized adult models and musical talent consists of lip-syncing yodeling. 

However, for all the laughs generated, there are moments that were not explained. One of which is the dialogue between Mom and Dad at a crucial time at the motel. It was as though something were cut from the film there. In fact, Toni Collette’s character was sidetracked in favor of everyone else’s emotional moment. I couldn’t understand her support of everyone when she clearly needed a time-out. 

Little Miss Sunshine was shown at Sundance 2006 and made for a fraction of films today. It shows that all you need is a palatable script, adequate direction, an old bus, lots of country and just turn your cast loose. Hollywood, are you listening?

Copyright 2006 Marie Asner
Submitted 7/28/06

Every now and then a movie comes along that is simply magic. No one can predict the formula or what ingredients make that happen. There is no template. Every film desires to be great but only small percentages truly are. Little Miss Sunshine is this summer’s brightest star. Filled with
laughs, tears and outright human emotion this movie is a ray of sunshine in an otherwise overcast season of cinema. Ok, enough clichés. Can you tell I love this flick?

This is the story of Olive’s (Abigail Breslin) journey to the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant and her dysfunctional family who do all they can to get her there. Along the way they battle their own personal struggles and learn to laugh a lot at themselves and each other. In the end they discover that love and devotion is the crown of true winners.

All of us will find at least one if not five family members we can relate to. There is the dad (Greg Kinnear) who is a wanna-be motivational speaker
and thinks apologies are for losers. The brilliant uncle (Steve Carell) who is a college professor and currently on suicide watch. A grandfather (Alan Arkin) who is training Olive for the pageant and uses his age as an excuse to speak his mind and say anything to anybody. A teenaged step brother (Paul Dano) who wants nothing more than to get away from the whole goofy gang and a mother (Toni Collette) who struggles to keep them all together. When these characters load into a decrepit VW Mini Bus and head from NM to California hilarity and real life anxieties come rolling along.

As I mentioned there is no perfect template to make a film work. If so they would all be blockbusters. But you can pinpoint a few must haves for
success; writing, dialogue and performance. To sympathize and identify with a character the actor has to be relatable. Believable. Totally transparent. That is the main staple of Little Miss Sunshine. This movie uses its full 101 minutes to draw you in and pull you from one enjoyable emotion to another.

The directing is dead on and each scene plays out with little or no fluff or extra baggage. It is what it is and that alone is brilliant. Carell
continues to nail role after role and brings depth and subtle sarcasm in his performance as a man teetering between brilliance and destruction. Breslin is adorable as a young girl who is far from perfect but has the heart and soul of true beauty. In fact every one in this film moves effortlessly in their parts adding to the realness and comfort ability.

Little Miss Sunshine is rated R for language, some sex and drug content. The adult moments are not trivial or flagrant. Instead it is used where needed and to build the characters and plot line. Though it is a story of a young girl it is not intended for young audiences. Parents should use caution for anyone under 15 as the heaviness and themes may be to weighty for younger viewers. If you want to laugh and cry (I seriously had tears running down my face from both emotions) and in the end rise to your feet with a cheer, then this film is just what you need. I give it 5 out of 5 crowns. With a look at Little Miss Sunshine, I’m Matt Mungle

The Mungle  8/02/06

Matt is a member of the North Texas Film Critics Association (NTFCA) and hosts the weekly syndicated Indie Rock Radio Show Spin 180. Plus with his wife Cindy they do a weekly radio feature, The Mungles on Movies. For additional reviews and interview clips visit the website www.mungleshow.com