Very funny, if you don't think about it too much

Rating: 8/10 (3 October 2006)

"Little Miss Sunshine" (2006), was directed by the husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. It's a road film--the extended Hoover family (mother, father, daughter, son, grandfather, mother's brother) travel from New Mexico to California in a battered van.
Abigail Breslin plays the daughter, Olive Hoover, who is the only stable family member. Her brother has elective mutism, and communicates only by writing. Her uncle has just attempted suicide. Her grandfather (Alan Arkin) is snorting something--I think morphine. Her father (Greg Kinnear) apparently believes the motivational garbage he preaches, and her mother (the excellent Toni Collette) is trying to cope with marital, financial, and family stresses.
The movie is hilarious while you're watching it, because the filmmakers set up an enclosed universe in which everything fits together in its own bizarre way. Just don't think too much about the movie afterward, because, when examined logically, everything falls apart. The movie "Memento" was a film where people got home, took out a piece of paper, and tried to diagram the action. Not a good idea for this film. Accept "Little Miss Sunshine" for what it is--if you try to analyze it, it won't be funny anymore.