Wonderful Film

Rating: 10/10 (29 August 2006)

I had been yearning to see Little Miss Sunshine for quite a while and was thrilled when it came to the theater at which I work. They usually send us mainstream blockbuster crapola, and snub their noses to independent films, but succumbed to the rave reviews and high demand for this one.
Those rave reviews are well earned, as Little Miss Sunshine towers above nearly every other film I've seen this year, across all genre boundaries. It manages to be dark, hilarious, and touching and uplifting, and surprisingly, none of these moods conflict or step on the other's toes. It shifts gears (pun intended) quite well among themes.
If you know absolutely nothing of the plot and wish to, stop at the end of this paragraph. Everything said below is revealed in the first couple of minutes of film, if not in trailers and TV spots.
The basic plot follows a somewhat dysfunctional family. Greg Kinnear plays Richard Hoover, a father of two and struggling motivational speaker. His wife, Sheryl (Toni Collette) takes in her brother, Frank, a top Proust scholar after his failed suicide attempt. Dwayne is 15, and a mute by choice, and Olive is 7 and finds out that due to a beauty pageant scandal, she has been crowned the winner of the Little Miss Chili Pepper Pageant in Alberquerque, and is eligible to go to California to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant. Her grandfather (Alan Arkin), a loud, somewhat crass and oddly insightful old man helps her craft her routine. The bulk of the film takes place on the ensuing road trip taken by the six family members in their old, broken down, yellow VW Hippie Bus.
This film is really nothing short of spectacular. It takes a good hard look at a family so different from each other, but so strongly united by both blood and events. That look also happens to be hilarious, but the film would have probably worked if they worked the screenplay as a drama as well. It is amazingly well written, clever and original. It works a lot of pretty deep themes with some cheaper gags. One of the best revolves around the clutch of the VW Bus. Alan Arkin provides some of the films funniest moments. His character is great.
The Bottom Line: Go see this film, now. Everything about it clicks, and I doubt there will be a better dark comedy this year. You can thank me later for recommending it.
Seriously, I expect written thanks.