Olive Branches aren't enough to win me over in this Film Festival Favorite

Rating: 5/10 (14 August 2006)

Perhaps because of the hype that has been surrounding this movie, I had set expectations that no film could live up to. If that is not the case, then Little Miss Sunshine is in fact the horribly generic "independant" film that I believe it is.
Filled with the condescending "so simple but so beautiful" scene angles that would only stimulate pompous filmmakers like Gus Van Sant, the whole feel of the movie condescends more than it does evoke. Each little snippet of ironic humor (the unsuccessful motivational speaker or a Nietzsche obsessed teenager whose only dream is to be an air force pilot) is worth nothing more than a light chuckle. Although the subtle joke that all Proust scholars are gay was an example of although the film is not the gem that it has been made out to be, its still not bad. For example, making a living off caricature roles, Steve Carrell proves that he is in fact an actor. Abigail Breslin is the child actress that Dakota Fanning wishes she was. Alan Arkin is brilliant as the grandfather. If the film flies in one area, it's the acting.
It's not that I hate the film. As I said, perhaps my judgment is based more in disappointment. However, from the beginning of the film, each quirk in every single character plays out in the most predictable and, for me, unexciting way. I do say that you see it, because as I left the theater, I heard most people singing praises. As for myself, I will continue searching for the perfect movie of the summer; the one that will fill the void that Little Miss Sunshine should have.