Little Miss Sunshine

Rating: 9/10 (4 December 2006)

The six members of the Hoover family, Sheryl (the over-worked, stressed mother), Richard (the failed motivational speaker obsessed with winning, and Sheryl's husband), Dwayne (the avowedly mute Nietzsche-reading son with aspirations to be a pilot), Frank (Sheryl's homosexual, suicidal Proust scholar sibling), Grandpa (the heroin-snorting grandparent) and Olive (the beauty queen wannabe who is a contestant in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant) must travel from Albuquerque to California in a struggling canary yellow mini-bus.
As you can see, the characters are an elaborate set up for the most dysfunctional road-movie family ever, and a chance to milk some hefty laughs from the audience. The characters are played respectively by Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano, Steve Carell, Alan Arkin and Abigail Breslin. Now, there are some reasonably well-known faces in that list, which, initially, makes the family less believable as a collective. As the film progresses, the family becomes more believable as a unit.
Now, I thought I would lay out the main criticisms of the film for you, to help you make your decision on viewing this film:
The set ups - The ridiculous situations the characters get themselves into. The film's classification as dramedy (drama/comedy) allows for film to switch between hysterical situations and poignant moments at a second's notice. I've read comments on IMDb that say the film was desperately trying to pack two years worth of drama and belief-suspending comedy into two days, which is how the film feels, with its emotional state fluctuating constantly.
Grandpa's habit - Grandpa has been kicked out of his old folk's home because of his habit, and that's why he is along for the ride in the film. Little does the Hoover family know, Grandpa has brought his habit with him. Some people aren't aware when they watch the film that the rest of the family *doesn't know* that Grandpa has heroin with him. Now, Grandpa is very close to Olive, his granddaughter, after all - he taught her the moves for her dance piece at the pageant.
I've read many complaints here that Grandpa is the most irresponsible and sick grandfather, because of his addiction and why didn't the family confiscate his heroin? Well, they didn't know for a start. Next question? What kind of parent lets their heroin-addicted father share a hotel room with their daughter? Well if you don't know that he is still using heroin, then it seems okay to let them stay together - especially if the grandfather is her coach and closest family member.
I think this film was so over-hyped that people find fun in its flaws, even if the flaws can be accurately explained. The same thing happened to 'Titanic' - people hate it when a film gets too popular, because somehow increased popularity equals decreased credibility?
Anyway, the message of the film in the end is life-affirming, and if you've relaxed during the film, you'll walk out with a smile. The film is not a masterpiece, that's why I rated it 8/10, but it certainly isn't bad and 'Little Miss Sunshine' deserves all its critical praise, simply for being a quality movie.