Not just a razor-sharp script, but also a fantastic set of performances...

Rating: 9/10 (26 October 2013)

It's surprising how much the success of an ensemble comedy depends on each individual member's contribution to the film. It's all about actors working together and riffing off each other, and one weak link can spoil an otherwise good premise for a film. "Little Miss Sunshine" not only benefits greatly from its razor-sharp script, but also a fantastic set of characters and performances, which complement each other perfectly. The production side of the film is made up of newcomers, director team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and first-time writer Michael Arndt (who later wrote "Toy Story 3″).
The film never feels like a first-time effort, though, and this again is down to the cast, made up of experienced actors like Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette. Even Abigail Breslin had been acting for 4 years when she made this film. Steve Carrell delivers the funniest performance of the film, and also manages to bring a great deal of drama to his role. Paul Dano manages to make his appearances in the first half deep, despite his complete silence throughout. This silence does build up to one of the film's best moments, when we finally hear is character, Dwayne, speak in a loud, sweary outburst.
The film follows the path of a basic road-trip movie. A family are trying to get from A to B (which here takes the form of a beauty pageant), while they drift apart and reconnect with each other. It's a film more about character relationships than a formal story at times. The humour of the film comes from running jokes and set pieces, which are frequent and constantly funny. It's very cleverly done, and no scene is unimportant, as most add to a joke found later on in the film. The best scene in the film comes from a great ensemble at the hospital, just after Alan Arkin's character has died. The family need to smuggle his body out of the hospital so that they can get to the pageant on time. This scene in particular, which begins very seriously and dramatically, shows how well written the film is, as it manages to go from deeply emotional to laugh-out-loud funny in a matter of seconds.
The end to the film is extremely satisfying, a tough feat to pull off in a comedy, where many can feel unfulfilled or abrupt, and Olive's appearance at the beauty pageant, which the whole movie has built up to, is extremely well done and really funny. Altogether, it's a heart-warming and hilarious movie, making you care for the characters just as much as it makes you laugh.