Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Writer: Michael Arndt (Screenplay)
Starring: Abigail Breslin, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Alan Arkin, Toni Collette, Steve Carell
Plot: A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
Tagline – A family on the verge of a breakdown
Runtime: 1 Hour 41 Minutes
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Amazingly Charming Movie
Story: Little Miss Sunshine starts as we meet our family, motivational speaker Richard (Kinnear), hardworking mother Sheryl (Collette), depressed teenage son Dwayne (Dano) who has taken a vow of silence, hyperactive young daughter Olive (Breslin), veteran grandfather Edwin (Arkin) and Uncle Frank (Carell) who is fresh out of a hospital after a failed suicide attempt.
The six go on a road trip across America to enter Olive into the Little Miss Sunshine competition and along the way the family must deal with their own ups and downs to help their youngster member fulfill her dream.
Thoughts on Little Miss Sunshine
Characters – Olive is the youngest member of the family, cute but never going to be able to truly compete in the beauty contests, but this is her dream and the family will come together to help her achieve her dream. Richard is the father of the family, a motivational speaker who believes he has the next big catch for a book, he always encourages his family to believe they will succeed over just trying. Dwayne is the eldest son in the family, taking a vow of silence until he can become a jet pilot, he hates everyone with the only one he will help is Olive. Grandpa Edwin has been kicked out of a retirement home and living with the family, he swears and enjoys a drug or two. Sheryl is the mother of the family who will do anything for her kids which involves taking Olive across country for the contest. Frank is the suicidal genius brother of Sheryl, released under her care in case he tries it again, he sees the family for their flaws and even takes Dwayne under his wing on the journey.
Performances – We have six fantastic performances here, we had the established stars, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette and Alan Arkin shining and the star making performances from Abigail Breslin, Paul Dano and Steve Carell who was the it star of 2006.
Story – The story follows a dysfunctional family that must travel across America to enter their youngest member to a beauty contest. We get the characters with their flaws that can be worked on through the film which gives us a natural feeling about the family. It does have the idea that family will need to come together no matter what gets in their way. This is a fun enjoyable story that can be enjoyed by everyone.
Comedy – The comedy here is delightful it hits on every level and does mostly come from real life moments.
Settings – The road trip moments give us the idea of how far the family will go and we see this in the settings.
Scene of the Movie – The dance routine.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – The colour-blind test is fake because I am color blind and I could see the test, when normally I haven’t been able to.
Final Thoughts – This is easily one of the greatest comedies of all time, it is just delightful on every account with wonderful performance from the whole cast.
Overall: Wonderful throughout.
Rating
