Dance!!!

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2007)

The plot revolves around Olive (Abigail Breslin), who is truly a "little miss sunshine" the sweetest little girl, full of innocence and inner joy even though she is living within a totally dysfunctional family. She is wise enough to know that a genuine hug can uplift the worst depression and grounded enough not to be upset when her self-absorbed family forgets all about her.
Despite the fact that she is a tad pudgy and simply cute as a button, but not a great beauty, Olive has managed to win a local child beauty contest and has the chance to participate in the Little Miss Sunshine contest in California. For various reasons, the family decides the only way to accomplish getting her there is to all load in the old van and drive for two days.
Just so we are clear on who the players are here, we have:
1. Richard, Olives' father (Greg Kinnear), the failed entrepreneurial creator of a nine-step program called Refuse to Lose, who is happy to let everyone else know why they are a loser but never turns that inspection on himself.
2. Sheryl, Olive's mom (Toni Collette), the sweet but scattered sanest of the bunch, who is so disconnected from her daughter that she does not even know what her costume for the contest looks like.
3. Dwayne, Olive's Nietzsche reading teenage brother (Paul Dano), who has taken a vow of silence.
4. Frank, Olive's genius, homosexual uncle (Steve Carell), who is recovering from a failed suicide attempt over a lost love and a ruined career.
5. Grandpa, Olive's very loving but drug-using, porn-reading, foul-mouthed, paternal grandfather (Alan Arkin), who lives with the family and is Olive's only coach for the Little Miss Sunshine contest.
So they all pile in the van to help Olive achieve her dream. It is during this Murphy's Law laden road trip from hell that the family learns some solid spiritual lessons about themselves and life.
Poor Olive is in a constant pull between her overzealous, somewhat demented father's advice about how to be a winner (and not to eat ice cream so or she'll get fat) and her grandfather's advice that a real loser is someone so afraid of losing that they never try anything (and eat all the ice cream you want).
Jumping in with both feet, confident she can be a winner in either book, Olive certainly goes out on a limb with the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. It is her dream, and no matter how much the van and the family fall apart on the two day trip, Olive keeps her optimism, selfless love, and joy in life.
Drawing everyone's three day experience together eloquently, Dwayne reaches a grand conclusion: Life is one *#^%* beauty contest after another. So do what you love and #*%* the rest. (You can fill in the colorful language, which this movie has in abundance.)
Life often does feel like one string of events where we are being judged by someone else. Is our house big enough? Are our clothes stylish and expensive enough? And, the constant whammy for most women, Am I pretty enough? Not to mention the torture-filled, nightmarish beauty pageant of middle school and high school. How many joys in life do we miss because we are fussing about what others will think?
Fortunately, Olive has not yet gotten the memo that these are the things we have to worry about and is oblivious to it all. With a natural innocence, she is just being Olive and doing what she loves to do.
The most truly beautiful people I know think less of themselves than they do of others. When we can release ourselves from the self-centeredness that is so caught up in what others think of us or what just our own needs and concerns are, then we are free to be a part of something wonderful.
In the end, a pleasing set of facial features does not a beautiful face make, or a beautiful person. I've met many women who appear to be everything lovely and elegant  until they open their mouth and begin to spew forth with such arrogance or ignorance that I wonder why I was ever so impressed with them. I've also met very plain women who are so filled with eloquence and grace that loveliness just envelopes their presence.
I love the thought:
"Love {God} never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less than beautiful... Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the demands of the affections, and should never weigh against the better claims of intellect, goodness, and virtue...The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and more Soul..." ("Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mary Baker Eddy)
If life is one big beauty contest, how are the winners and the losers judged? I think the cast of kooks in this movie reach the conclusion that it is being yourself, doing what you love, and sharing it with those you love.
As the saying on life goes: When you get the chance to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance. And, wow, does Olive dance when she is given the opportunity  even though she is scared and the adults want her to quit  and with a chutzpah that most of us will never experience in our whole lives.
In this giant beauty contest, we should give it our all, like Olive does, and be who we are instead of trying to measure up to someone else's standard. Have less illusion, and express more soul.