A Good Movie That Could Have Been A Great Movie

Rating: 8/10 (20 August 2006)

"Little Miss Sunshine" is a movie that gave me a lot of laughs, especially at the beginning of the film, but the laughs slowly but surely became fewer and fewer as the movie progressed. I've decided to blame this on Alan Arkin - because his part wasn't big enough! His scatological grandfather role was the brightest spot in the whole film.
The whole cast was very good, but as good an actor as Greg Kinnear is, he seems to be type-cast as an irritating schlemiel with a victim mentality whom you'd just love to throttle. Greg's characters always have "Kick Me" taped to the backs of their shirts, and if you've seen him with Jack Nicholson in "As Good As It Gets" or with Pierce Brosnan in "The Matador" you'll know what I mean. Tony Collette was excellent as Kinnear's harried wife. She's so real I could swear I've actually seen her character on the street.
The writing was really one of the highlights of the film; after all, if there were no the humor in the writing there'd be no funny lines to deliver. Paul Dano was fine as the family's anguished teenage son, but the humor in his character really comes from the mouths of the writers.
Despite the raves you'll read on this web site - and the huge line of folks waiting to get into the theater - the film seemed to lose steam as it went along, with pathos supplanting much of the humor. By 2/3 of the way through the movie the star of the film seemed to be the VW bus the family was traveling in. So, good writing and a lot of laughs; but ultimately the film is missing something - not enough Alan Arkin.