A great family dramedy with excellent performances all around

Rating: 9/10 (27 August 2006)

I saw the trailer months ago, but it never clicked in my head that Little Miss Sunshine was the big film from the Sundance Film Festival. It looked like an Indie, but not to the point that the usual batch of Sundance films do. But I waited anyway to see it anyway, and after opening wider within the past few weeks, I finally got the chance.
Little Miss Sunshine is basically a road movie revolving around a completely dysfunctional family on their way to a beauty pageant in California. The family includes the father Richard (Greg Kinnear), a motivational speaker who is always pumping his 9 step program while waiting for the book deal to come in; mother Sheryl (Toni Collette), who is unsure of what to do with herself as the family faces financial ruin; Sheryl's brother Frank (Steve Carrell), a gay Proust scholar who just happens to be suicidal; Grandpa (Alan Arkin), who is obsessed with porn and snorting heroin; Dwayne (Paul Dano), the son who is taking a vow of silence; and Olive (Abigail Breslin), the daughter who is getting ready to act in the titular pageant.
The characters may sound like they were tailor made for a sitcom, but they work brilliantly on screen. There is an electric presence between these six actors, and it only gets more intense as the film goes on. Their chemistry together is absolutely awestriking and is exactly what every film studio hopes and prays for from their actors. And they deliver here in masses. It is a totally dialogue driven film, and every actor pulls their weight here to make it as enjoyable as they can. While they handle the comedic elements of the script with the most perfect finesse, they handle the dramatic elements all the better. This is a family dramedy in the truest sense.
While each of the actors are great, Carrell and Dano stand out as the best of the bunch. Their performances are put together and acted to the point of being so smooth, that it becomes fascinating to watch. While Carrell's career is only going to continue to soar from here on, Dano's looks to be headed in the right direction. He is definitely going to be one to watch in the coming years. However, if he was given more screen time, I think Arkin would have been the best of the bunch. He steals scenes from everyone in the cast, and proves his worth as a veteran actor. More time on the screen could have only helped his performance become so much better than it already is.
While the characters are great, the plot really does not deviate too much. It stays fairly straight forward right until the end, and mostly allows for character interactions and not much else. There are a few supporting turns, but most of them are basically cameos, as each has less than five minutes of screen time a piece. While it sticks to realism (and really gets heavy and satirical when the pageant comes closer), there were more than a handful of completely ridiculous and absurd sequences, and a few that felt like they belonged in another film entirely. It does not take away from the film for the most part, but felt a little strange in context with the rest.
If you like dialogue driven comedy, then this is a definite must-see. It is hilarious and dramatic all at once, and the main six actors are just fabulous in their roles. Do not be surprised by a Best Original Screenplay nod and possibly more come Oscar time.
9/10.