Little Miss Sunshine
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Written by: Michael Arndt
Starring: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Abigail Breslin, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin

This is the best movie of the year so far and that’s definitely not an exaggeration. I don’t think I found anything wrong with this movie. It has peaks and valleys, the script is perfect, endearing and hysterical, and the characters are built so beautifully too. They waste no time in this film letting you know exactly who these characters are, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t grow as the film progresses.

Here’s the synopsis: Little Miss Sunshine is about a typical family unit and the youngest, a girl named Olive (played by the incredibly young and talented Abigale Breslin) gets the opportunity to compete in a beauty pageant in California. This event prompts the entire family to get into a VW Micro Bus and drive for 2 days straight to make it to the pageant. However, the movie turns into a Murphy’s Law type of plot — but not annoying like a predictable Ben Stiller flick. You may think several times that this movie will become that sort of plot, but you’ll be surprised.

Two things make this film so wonderful: the amazing and engaging story/script, and the actors who were cast to play the roles. With an ensemble cast of stars in this film you would think that they would be fighting for centre stage, but that wasn’t the case. It was truly a team effort and that is what made this film possible. Steve Carell pops up in his first role since The 40 Year Old Virgin only to play Uncle Frank, a gay PhD holder who has just tried to kill himself. His sister Sheryl, played by Toni Collette, is a mother and wife who is trying to stabilize her family while dealing with her husband Richard (Greg Kinnear), creator of a failing self help program. Her son Dwayne (Paul Dano) who has taken a vow of silence until he gets into flight school and explicitly states that he hates everyone. There’s also the lovable Olive, the other sibling in the eqauation who does some of the best acting I have ever seen a 9 year old do with such emotion and range. And finally, saving the best for last: the heroin snorting, foul-mouthed grandpa played the magnificent Alan Arkin.

Although this movie is about six individuals all trying desperately to figure out their lives, and although there is a lot of sadness and turmoil, you have never seen it mixed so well with non-stop laughter. This is not one of those films that starts out funny and then trails off into self-discovery and a heartwarming solution. This film is hysterical from start to finish with some dreams realized and some not. It also succeeds in reminding you of those vacations you are forced into with your family in a hot car, and although it was trying and shitty at the time, when you step outside of the situation and look in you realize just how pricelessly funny it was.

The movie’s characters are almost like one person combined and followed through their whole life. Here’s what I mean: you have a child who is still untouched by the horrors of life and reality, and then you have a 15 year old who is just in the vortex of the most painful experience of life itself: adolescence and high school. Then you have the mid-lifers, one a stable mother who is trying to hold her family together by offering motherly options and comfort. The other is a father who is ridiculously goal-driven who only believes in his personal philosophies, but is actually in denial of his own failure and can’t come to terms with it. Then we have a victim of failed suicide who has gone far enough in life to realize what it can do to you and has given up completely. Then you have a grandfather who has lived longer than anyone in the film, lived through what everyone in the film is going through, and has now made the decision to do whatever the hell he wants. Grandpa offers some of the best and most brutally honest advice a 15 year old could possibly ever get: “Fuck a lot of women.”

This movie was a story of a family who is always on the verge of a complete breakdown but somehow, through a chain of character building events, keep it together. What is great is that it never seems as though they actually want succeed as a family and have undertone of forced failure so that they can move on, on their own. However the story leads the audience up and down and the script always forces the family to stay together and work as a team. Especially since it takes all of them to push start their bus into 3rd gear every time they have to drive.

To be honest, just make sure you see this movie. It is the kind of film that absolutely everyone can laugh at, relate to and enjoy. — Jackson Main

SCORE:

Recommended If You Like: Rushmore, Vacation, The Squid and the Whale

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