An amusing road trip with a dysfunctional family

Rating: 8/10 (17 July 2016)

Little Olive Hoover wants to be a beauty queen and it looks like she may get a chance when she is invited to participate in the 'Little Miss Sunshine' pageant in Redondo Beach, California. There are a couple of problems though; she is almost a thousand miles away in Albuquerque and for one reason or another her entire family must come with her. These include her suicidal uncle; her brother, who has taken a vow of silence; her foulmouthed grandfather; her father, an unsuccessful motivational speaker; and her relatively normal mother.
They take the journey in a clapped out VW Camper van and along the way things don't go according to plan. They didn't exactly get on well before they were cooped up in the van and it isn't surprising that tempers fray somewhat as they travel along not helped when the clutch fails and they have to push it every time they want to get started. They do eventually get to the competition but nobody will be surprised that things don't go quite as expected.
Initially I wasn't quite sure what to make of this film; many of the main characters are hard to like at first and they are all a bit odd. However as time passes we see that they aren't entirely bad and the various adversities ultimately bring them together to give a feel good ending. Along the way there are plenty of comical moments, as well as a tragedy. When they get to the pageant it delightfully showed us the creepiness of children's beauty pageants before Olive's jaw-dropping performance that was genuinely shocking as well as very funny! The cast does an impressive job; this includes the secondary characters who include several familiar faces. Overall I'd certainly recommend this although not for younger viewers as there is plenty that parents probably wouldn't approve of.