Little Miss American Beauty ...

Rating: 2/10 (10 February 2007)

The film LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE builds, not surprisingly, to the "Little Miss" beauty pageant of the title. As the pageant unfolds, we -- I guess -- are suppose to be appalled by the sight of little girls strutting around on stage doing make-believe provocative routines, while dressed in sorta sexually suggestive clothes. Yet, when the film's little protagonist, Olive Hoover, takes the stage dressed like Diane Keaton in ANNIE HALL, but does a dance routine more like Demi Moore in STRIPTEASE (while "Super Freak" plays in the background!), we -- I guess -- are supposed to be amused by how cute she is. Am I missing something here? Why do the filmmakers take such a condescending view of child beauty pageants, with the implications that the participants are being somehow exploited, yet they seem to celebrate when their little darling behaves in a manner that is infinitely more tasteless?
After I finished watching LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE the first time, my reaction was a shrug and a "So what!" I didn't see what all the fuss was about. This R-rated "family" comedy just didn't seem like all that much to me. Plus, as the weeks passed and I thought about it more, the less I could remember about any of it that was even just okay. After seeing it a second time, the thought of the film just flat-out gives me the creeps. It is like someone took a nice banal and benign Disney film and did everything they could to dirty it up, while trying to retain a thin veneer of it being sweet and innocent. Ironically, as the film seems to condemn beauty pageants for making something sleazy out of something cute, that is exactly what the filmmakers do with their story. A slight tale about an ugly duckling hoping to be a swan ends up having the moral that "life is just one f*****g beauty pageant after another!" That's not how I remember Hans Christian Andersen phrasing it.
There is never a moment in the film where the heavy hand of contrivance doesn't manipulate the actions of all involved. For some illogical reason, little Miss Olive is at the last minute notified that she can compete in the title beauty pageant, despite the fact she lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico and the pageant seems to be a local event in Southern California. Because the plot hinges on it, the entire family is forced to go to the event, all piling into a beat up, old VW minibus that has "phony plot gimmick" written all over it. What follows is a series of scenes where nobody seems to like each other, but where the story stops regularly to show just how much they really, really, really love each other. Yawn!
I guess we are suppose to find this dysfunctional bunch adorable. Abigail Breslin is cute enough as the 10-year-old wannabe beauty queen and Steve Carell does well as gay Uncle Frank, though just what point is being served by making him a suicidal depressive is not obvious. And with heavyhanded irony, the film makes it clear that step-dad Richard (Greg Kennear) is a motivational speaker whose positive thinking theories for success clearly don't work for him. Toni Colette is given the thankless job of being the almost-invisible mother. And it says something about this family that brother Dwayne (Paul Dano) is fifteen and no one has yet to notice that he is color blind and can't tell red from green. Don't these people even celebrate Christmas? No wonder the kid is angry and has taken a vow of silence.
But the film stretches its creep factor to the limit with Grandpa Edwin; played by Alan Arkin, Grandpa would be nothing more than the stereotype of a cantankerous foul-mouthed old coot accept that he is also a heroin user and has a porn habit -- both of which he indulges on this family outing. This is the filmmakers' idea of charming. When we find out that sex-obsessed Grandpa is apparently Olive's frequent babysitter and pageant coach, the thought of Grandpa locked away with Olive in the basement, high on drugs as he teaches her how to shake her groove thing and do a crowd-pleasing burlesque, should make your skin crawl. Even assuming that nothing funny is going on between Gramps and Olive, it says something that the filmmakers don't even recognize just how improper and unhealthy the idea appears to be. Do they actually think this is a typical American Family?
The only fascinating thing about the film is that it was one of the most critically praised films of 2006, despite its fake sentimentality, contrived plot twists and sleazy dishonesty. I can only assume that its mean streak has somehow been mistaken for satirical bite.
There is a smug and demeaning attitude that permeates this entire film, yet there is little justification apparent for the film or its makers to, in any way, feel superior. It's rancid cynicism doesn't even make the film hip and cool, or even dark and thought-provoking. Being no more a "feel good" family comedy than AMERlCAN BEAUTY was an honest look at the middle class, the film is shallow and crude and just not very nice. I suppose screenwriter Michael Arndt thinks he is making a bold statement about our competitive society, but what that may be is hard to see. The film ends with officials trying to yank little Olive off the stage, only to have her entire family join her to show their support for her mock striptease, disrupting the entire pageant. The message seems to be if you can't win, then ruin it for everyone else. It scores no point for congeniality either.