Dysfunction in action.

Rating: 6/10 (23 December 2006)

You will either love it or hate it. For me the jury is still out. Sometimes very irritating; but then again there is the sad comedy. Richard Hoover(Greg Kinnear)is a failure at trying to present a motivational success program. His wife Sheryl(Toni Collette)is a doormat and enabler. Son Dwayne(Paul Dano)is in the middle of a nine month vow of silence. Alan Arkin is Richard's foul-mouthed father. Sheryl's depressed brother(Steve Carell)has just been released from the hospital following a suicide attempt. And seven-year-old Olive(Abigail Breslin) is a-wanna-be beauty queen. This eccentric family decides to travel, in a broken-down VW bus, from their Albuquerque home to Redondo Beach, California to enter the not-so-cute Olive in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. The trip is a bit bizarre to say the least; enduring heartache, throttled dreams and oh yes, themselves.