An all around wonderful film.

Rating: 9/10 (2 December 2006)

This is one of those films that I loved so much I really just don't know what to say about it. The cast was absolutely perfect. Steve Carell was great in a role that seems a bit more subdued than what he as normally done. It was a bit more dramatic and less comedic than his other roles. Don't get me wrong, he was still funny as hell but he played the dramatic part of the role perfectly. Greg Kinear, Alan Arkin and Toni Collette all also played there roles wonderfully.
However, special mention has to go to little Abigail Breslin as Olive. She delivers a wonderful performance, and possibly one of the best performances from a child actor I have seen in awhile. She manages to be this sweet innocent child without being so sweet that it makes us sick, like the performances we see so often in Hollywood movies. She was one of the many wonderful things about the film.
The film is also very emotional all around, it will make you laugh and cry; sometimes both at the same time. And it never feels like the emotional impact is being shoved down your throat like many Hollywood movies do these days. The emotional connection you feel with this movies seem to flow very naturally. I honestly cared about the characters in this film, which is something that I don't see very often these days.
I do have to say that Olive's dance routine was simply great commentary on the whole idea of beauty pageants for children. If you have never seen one of these things, they are just as creepy in real life as the movie makes them out to be, little girls getting spray on tans and running around in bikinis. Olive's dance routine where she almost strips was just so hilarious because here she is doing what is obviously a stripper routine and she was still being less provocative than the other little girls (I feel so creepy just using a word like "Provocative" when talking about young girls like that).
I also loved the irony of the father that is supposed to be this wonderful motivational speaker but he is really a complete failure at everything. He just can't seem to realize that if his little motivational plan actually worked, he would be able to find something else to do with his life other than selling his motivational plan.