Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Starring: Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, Toni Collette, Steve Carell

First, the Lowdown: The youngest daughter of the world’s oddest family has a chance to compete in a beauty competition. ROAD TRIP!

Meet the Hoovers. Richard spends his days promoting his pathway to success course and dreaming of the big book deal in the sky that he’s going to get. Consequently, his wife, Sheryl, is the only income earner and it shows in every worry line on her face. Their sullen oldest son, Dwayne, is fully in the throes of teenage rebellion, but has decided to display it in the most unobtrusive way possible: by taking a vow of silence. Also living with them is their Grandpa, whose juvenile attitude makes Dwayne seem almost rosy and optimistic. The only beacon of normalcy in the family is Olive, who spends most of her time in pursuit of the only princess-like fantasy that a girl her age can engage in without peerage: beauty competitions. Adding to the mulligan stew of quirkiness is Frank: a Proust scholar who attempted suicide after being spurned by his gay lover.

When one of the contestants for the Little Miss Sunshine contests has to bow out, Olive is picked as a replacement. However, Sheryl and Richard’s finances are so strapped that they cannot afford to fly to Redondo Beach where the contest is located. Grandpa has been training Olive for competition for months and refuses to leave her side, and no one wants to leave the recovering suicidal Frank alone – so they all pile into the family VW for a road trip to California.

Since Bob Hope and Bing Crosby, the road movie has gotten rather formulaic as of late. In order to be interesting you have to put it in a really exotic location and/or have compellingly original characters (something that was executed on both points rather well in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.) And try as it might, Little Miss Sunshine’s characters are original, but in such a fashion that it looks like the filmmakers were trying to one-up each other in the “who can make the weirdest character” contest. (“Dad’s a failed motivational speaker!” “Oh yeah? Grandpa is a heroin addict!” “Oh yeah? Oldest son Dwayne is not only a sullen teenager, but he’s taken a VOW OF SILENCE.” “Oh yeah? Uncle Frank tried committing suicide – and he’s a GAY PROUST SCHOLAR!”) The only two characters who aren’t given any weirdness factors are also the two with the least development: Sheryl and Olive.

This brings me to my major problem with the movie. The thing about road trip movies is that the more people you shove into the car, the less likely you’re going to have character development. Sheryl and Olive are practically normal in comparison with their co-stars, and while Olive’s role serves as the catalyst for the movie (she’s the one competing, after all), Sheryl’s only purpose seems to be to bitch at the other characters. A staple of all road movies is that everyone in the car (or vehicle of conveyance) has to have some moment of personal revelation in the movie. And indeed everyone has their “moment”, except for Sheryl. Personally, I think the movie would’ve been more compellingly original if they didn’t have her present at all, but I guess the makers felt it needed more women.

That isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy the movie. There are quite a few laugh-out-loud moments to be had here, especially the hints at children’s beauty pageants being a socially accepted form of pederasty. Steve Carell is thankfully low-key here (then again, this movie did come out before he got to be typecast as a bureaucratic douchebag). And it’s great to see Alan Arkin as a foul-mouthed jackass instead of the person who has to react uncomfortably to the foul-mouthed jackass.

Line of the movie: “So, if you sleep until you're 18. Think of the suffering you're gonna miss. I mean high school? High school: those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that.”

Three and a half stars. Keep of the grass.