Little Miss Sunshine Review

It had been quite a while since I had watched a movie and had fallen in love with everything about it.  Even films I thought were worthy of 5 stars weren't quite perfect.  In fact,  before I viewed Little Miss Sunshine last summer, I'd say the last movie to truly grab me was 2000's Almost Famous, and if you've seen Almost Famous and know me at all, that's for obvious reasons.

The film follows the Hoover family as they trek from New Mexico to California so that the youngest of the clan, Olive (Abigail Breslin), can compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.  But this isn't your normal everyday family.  Olive is hardly your normal pre-teen beauty contestant.  She's somewhat homely and portly, but there's a lot there to like.  Her parents, Richard (Greg Kinnear) and Sheryl (Toni Colette), are at each other's throats over the family's finances.  Richard is trying to garner a book deal for his nine step program to success, but finding no takers.  Their son, Dwayne (Paul Dano), is a reclusive teenager who has taken a vow of silence in his quest to become a jet pilot.  Meanwhile, Richard's father (Alan Arkin) has a heroin habit, and Sheryl's brother (Steve Carell) has just been released from the hospital after attempting suicide.  Just your normal all American family, eh?

When I first watched this film, I thought the humor would be too dark for American audiences.  I didn't think this sort of dysfunctional family would play well, especially since it seemed so real.  But with each successive viewing, I've found the film to be much lighter in spirit than I initially deemed it. 

It has a simple message: despite all of their problems, this family sticks together, and winds up closer than they started because of it.  Sure, it's a bit of a hokey message, but it works here, and it works because every member of this cast is simply brilliant. 

The movie hinges on the Olive character.  Without her, the rest of the familial bonding wouldn't seem believable.  She is the glue that holds the family together, and Breslin's performance is believable and nuanced.  Carell, who plays a gay Proust scholar, is surprisingly straight here; yes he makes you laugh, but more often than not, he's giving a solid dramatic performance more than anything.

Colette and Kinnear work well together as husband and wife.  You truly believe they hate each other in the appropriate scenes, but you also believe that there is a love and bond there when there truly needs to be. 

The true breakout star may just be Dano, though.  As Dwayne, he gives an exceptional performance, making teen angst seem real and not just a bunch of Hollywood cliches. 

Little Miss Sunshine isn't the type of film to change the world.  It is however, a movie that has a lot of humor and even more heart.  All too often these days, filmmakers forget about the heart.  Little Miss Sunshine has it in spades, and it's all the better for it.