Unashamedly honest

Rating: 9/10 (30 January 2009)

A family sets off on a journey to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant with many difficulties and challenges affecting their personal lives along the way.
Little Miss Sunshine is one fine drama. The real life issues, the hard characters and some established direction make this cult film a classic and a worthy Oscar winner.
The film starts with the tragic scene of Steve Carell living with his sister after trying to kill himself. The drama consists with Toni' Collette's struggle to raise the family, Alan Arkin's drug problems and Paul Dano's attitude towards life, in particular his family. The combination of issues including drugs, life and religion reflects many views continually debated in current media and society and not only does this film preach but it entertains on a consistent basis with fine twists and performances.
The inclusion of Abigail Breslin as Olive was a master class of casting. Oscar nominated Breslin plays an ordinary girl who has that rare upbeat personality and a fine connection with the world and its issues. The fact that this young character questions what to eat, how to dress and how to act, begs the question of the message models and celebrities are sending out with the ending a debate amongst many.
Breslin shines but it is Paul Dano and Alan Arkin who are the stand outs. Dano's ability to hold his tongue and convey that emotion of hate makes you believe he has you on his target list. Arkin's factual and honest Granddad is a worthy Oscar winner in any book with that smart ruefulness and cunning edge.
The comedy side of this 2006 picture is interesting. Very articulate and accurate in its approach, it flows from the situations the family find themselves in, such as when the van breaks down and Olive's spirited questioning of situations. Though the descriptions describe it as hilarious, it is more dramatic and black comedy with the real life issues taking centre stage. This is what independent films should be.
The story flows on the personal situations each character finds themselves in and whereas Dano's is the most intriguing, Greg Kinnear's depiction of the positive steps towards winning is interesting. His character can be almost as annoying as Patrick Swayze's in Donnie Darko but there is no question of the topic's importance.
Little Miss Sunshine is a film to be loved for its unashamed approach to real life, including some black comedy for good measure, rounded off by fine acting