The most amazing thing about Little Miss Sunshine, the best comedy of 2006, might be that it was written by someone who has no other writing credits (Michael Arndt), and was directed by the team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who have previously worked in those easily dismissed genres of music videos and television commercials. They may never make a better movie with a more talented cast than this one, so enjoy it while you can.
The plot (and movie itself) starts out slowly and feels like it's heading in a different direction. Sheryl (Toni Collette ) stops at the hospital to pick up her brother, Frank (a pre-superstar Steve Carell), who tried to commit suicide. Frank will be bunking with Sheryl's son, Dwayne (Paul Dano), who reads nihilist philosophy and has taken a vow of silence until he gets into the Air Force Academy. Sheryl's husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) is trying to become a motivational speaker, marketing his nine-steps to success. Richard's father, Grandpa (Alan Arkin), was kicked out of his nursing home for snorting heroin and now lives in Richard and Sheryl's basement and now spends his time teaching seven year old Olive (Abigail Breslin, Mel Gibson's daughter in Signs) talent routines to use in her "Little Miss" beauty pageants.
The family heads from Albuquerque to California in a yellow VW van so Olive can compete in the titular pageant. Like a left turn when you have your right signal blinking, the movie then veers away from the expected and becomes a comic road movie, with some of the best dialogue and acting of the year. All six leads deserve recognition in the upcoming awards season, but Kinnear really stands out as a man who divides the world into two camps, winners and losers, and does what he can to make sure his family is in the right camp. Dano and Carell form a bond as two of Kinnear's "losers" who go to bed in their shared room with Dano writing on his communication note pad, "welcome to hell."
The movie focuses on the journey to Olive's pageant, but doesn't mind gently skewering the pageant itself in the final quarter. It's one of those moments that doesn't feel as real as the rest of the movie, but, like stealing a dead body from the hospital, it accounts for some of the biggest laughs and also brings the family closer together. This family starting as six individuals with their own hopes and dreams and pulling together without losing their individual identities is the very core of what makes the movie more than just another dysfunctional family indie picture. |
Little Miss Sunshine - DVD
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