2008 Woodie Awards
Independent film does not pretend to be normal
Little Miss Sunshine celebrates heart-warming reality
Danny Acosta
Issue date: 5/9/06 Section: Detour
- Page 1 of 2 next >
If the best way to spice up a marriage is to make a summer blockbuster, then Little Miss Sunshine co-directors John Dayton and Valerie Faris' marital happiness must be staggering. On paper, the film looks destined for doom-married co-directors in their feature film debut? First time screenwriter? Limited release? Little Miss Sunshine ignores the factors going against it and shines with heart.
The film centers on potential junior beauty pageant queen Olive (Abigail Breslin) on her family-filled journey to a California contest. She is joined by her success driven failure of a father (Greg Kinnear), loving mother (Toni Collette), Frederick Nietzsche-obsessed mute teen brother (Paul Dano), hedonistic grandpa (Alan Arkin), and gay-suicidal uncle (Steve Carell). What ensues is cross-country hilarity peppered with the bitterness of reality.
Little Miss Sunshine is sunny throughout. The film opens with Olive's hopeful mimicking of her pageant heroines. Her oversized glasses and chubby stomach are unlikely traits for a potential beauty queen, but that does not seem to matter as she radiates the cuteness only a child is capeable of. What follows is gut-wrenching comedy at its quietest when Dwayne (Dano) informs Frank (Carell) that he hates everyone. A point he emphasizes by an underlining on his notepad-his only way of communicating-twice. This dinner table scene introduces the family as at odds, but in a funny, it's-so-messed-up-it-has-to-be-normal-way.
Thefilm seamlessly treads between heart-warming scenes of Olive practicing her pageant routine to Grandpa demanding porno magazines at a gas station. Despite the sharp contrasts, the viewer never forgets these people are from the same bloodline. More importantly, the grade A performances of the cast make these insane people believable. While the story revolves around Olive, it does not fail to develop its other characters subtly and outrageously. The ensemble cast makes family vacations fun again.
The film centers on potential junior beauty pageant queen Olive (Abigail Breslin) on her family-filled journey to a California contest. She is joined by her success driven failure of a father (Greg Kinnear), loving mother (Toni Collette), Frederick Nietzsche-obsessed mute teen brother (Paul Dano), hedonistic grandpa (Alan Arkin), and gay-suicidal uncle (Steve Carell). What ensues is cross-country hilarity peppered with the bitterness of reality.
Little Miss Sunshine is sunny throughout. The film opens with Olive's hopeful mimicking of her pageant heroines. Her oversized glasses and chubby stomach are unlikely traits for a potential beauty queen, but that does not seem to matter as she radiates the cuteness only a child is capeable of. What follows is gut-wrenching comedy at its quietest when Dwayne (Dano) informs Frank (Carell) that he hates everyone. A point he emphasizes by an underlining on his notepad-his only way of communicating-twice. This dinner table scene introduces the family as at odds, but in a funny, it's-so-messed-up-it-has-to-be-normal-way.
Thefilm seamlessly treads between heart-warming scenes of Olive practicing her pageant routine to Grandpa demanding porno magazines at a gas station. Despite the sharp contrasts, the viewer never forgets these people are from the same bloodline. More importantly, the grade A performances of the cast make these insane people believable. While the story revolves around Olive, it does not fail to develop its other characters subtly and outrageously. The ensemble cast makes family vacations fun again.