Brilliant

Rating: 9/10 (13 August 2006)

I loved this movie.
I know it is odd for someone to put their opinion in the first sentence of their review, but why wait? Why go through the history of how the film was made, what actors are playing what roles, how it was cast and all the neat tidbits that might have gone on behind the scenes. Why go through all of that just to get to the one line that reveals the overall impression by the writer of the viewing.
So, I loved this movie.
Premiering at January's Sundance Film Festival, Little Miss Sunshine picked up incredible buzz and critical praise. By the time the week was over Fox Searchlight bought up the distribution rights for the film for $10.5 million  the highest price ever paid for a film premiering at the festival.
From there, it was a game to see if it would take longer to get the film released than it did to get it made (it took five years for various reasons to get the product on celluloid).
Little Miss Sunshine brings to the big screen one of the most dysfunctional families you are bound to see in a movie that doesn't star Robin Williams. There is Richard (Greg Kinnear) who is trying to become the poor man's Tony Robbins, Olive (Abigail Breslin) the 7-year old daughter, Grandpa (Alan Arkin) who has an affinity towards porn and heroin, Dwayne (Paul Dano) who has taken a vow of silence for the past nine months, Frank (Steve Carrell) who is a gay, depressed Proust scholar who is on suicide watch after breaking up with his boyfriend and Sheryl (Toni Collette) the mother who's flaws are so overshadowed by the dominating indiscretions of the others that her sanity is the glue that holds the family together.
Together, they set out on a road trip adventure to California where Olive has been given the opportunity to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant due to a disqualification of another contestant. Along the way, their obstacles will include a death, a vehicle that won't work unless started n third gear, a disappointing revelation that will crush someone's dreams and an encounter with an ex that would suck the oxygen right out of the sails.
Little Miss Sunshine is directed by Jonathon Dayton and Valarie Faris who's previous resume was stationed in music videos and television commercials. But their lack of experience sure didn't show as they put together a road movie that is touching, funny and downright fun to watch.
Just how hard is it to put a road movie together? Well, Harold Ramis had some moments of success with Vacation, Jim Jarmusch tried it last year with Broken Flowers and Robin Williams comes to DVD with his road movie RV this week. In fact, for every Lost In America, there are ten Brown Bunny's. So the feat was a major undertaking with the chips stacked against them.
But the cast and characters they portray separate this film from the others and even if you can't relate each character to someone in your own family, you are engrossed in the struggles of an ordinary family just trying to survive.
Even the ending which you could figure might result in the family coming together in some weird and awkward way was done with brilliance. When Olive takes the stage to perform her dance routine that she had been taught by her Grandpa, we hold our breathe in hopes the young lass is not laughed off the stage, but ten seconds into the routine, it is the audience that is laughing off their seats as the scene plays out.
This won't be the last time you read about Little Miss Sunshine. Steve Carrell's career is sizzling thanks to the NBC show The Office and his theatrical vehicle The 40-Year Old Virgin that put him on the map. His turn as the serious, suicidal brother Frank shows his dramatic range. Abigail Breslin who was also brilliant in 2004's Keane shows that Dakota Fanning is not the only young talent in Hollywood. Little Miss Sunshine will be referred to going forward as the launching pad for these two remarkable talents and we will talk about them and the movie more when it appears on critics Best of Lists at the end of the year.
www.robertsreviews.com