Little Miss Sunshine

Rating: 9/10 (19 August 2007)

This film has an amazing beginning that in its style reminded me of "Magnolia" or "Boogie Nights". There is high tempo and you get to know all the characters of the family, and all of this with really great scenes. So the first montage is immediately one of the highlights of this wonderful film. I've often heard critics saying "Little Miss Sunshine" is predictable, and yes, they are right, it really is a little bit. But when it's done as charming as here, there is nothing to complain. The way Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton give space to each of the characters and come to the conclusion that with all its faults family still can be one of the best things on earth is feel-good cinema par excellence. The end sequence on the stage of the beauty contest just made me rejoice inwardly, with its childish spirit of kicking the rich one's ass. Not that I was a big fan of the genre, but if there ever was a film for the whole family, this is it.