A Total Surprise...One of 2006's Best Films

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2007)

A father looking to sell a "9-Step" program, an avowed 'winner.' A beleaguered mother with unflagging hope in her daughter's potential. Her troubled, homosexual brother, fresh out of the hospital after a suicide attempt. A Nietzsche-obsessed brother who has taken a vow of silence. A porn-ogling, foul-mouthed grandfather regretful of having "not f--ked a lot of women" in his lifetime. A precocious little girl determined to be the winner of the titular pageant. If I had read a description like this, I would have written off "Little Miss Sunshine" without a second thought--it looks and sounds like a standard-issue, deliberately 'quirky' road-trip comedy where the standard-issue dysfunctional family bonds and learns an Important Lesson at the denouement. And you know what? It is. But it is also laugh-out-loud hilarious, brilliantly acted (would someone please give Steve Carell a Best Supporting Actor nod?), and genuinely moving (the climax made me want to laugh, cry, and cheer, all at the same time). The feature debut of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (known previous for music videos, including The Smashing Pumpkins' 'Tonight Tonight') plays with the style and attention to character of a Wes Anderson film (though with a lot less inhibition in its comedy), and the breezy humor and hard knocks of, say, "The Squid and the Whale" (another excellent dramedy). But any way you cut it, "Little Miss Sunshine" is one of the most inspired films of the year...under a conventional-looking surface lies a tremendously moving experience.