Misses a little in box office shine

Rating: 6/10 (21 January 2007)

The producers of "Little Miss Sunshine" would like you and their fellow Hollywood liberals to know, up front, of their disapproval of the Bush Administration. They've built this modestly-entertaining rehash of plot innovations found in National Lampoon's "Summer Vacation" and "American Beauty" around that important political point. Actually ... I'm exaggerating almost beyond belief, as a mind game just to imagine how it would seem to any liberal to encounter in a Hollywood movie political snideness gratuitously directed, even in a brief scene, at their own liberal pantheon of political heroes! But as we all know, that will most assuredly never happen, so it's pretty much a moot exercise. Seriously, this film would be okay as TV re-run fare if you're not paying for it and have nothing more stimulating available tonight at the local video shop. The cast professionally serves up black humor American-style, using American society's ample lampoon-able aspects. Too bad, though, about the so-so ending: it could have benefited from some extra effort on the part of writers perhaps too pleased with themselves at sneaking in the prescribed quota of partisan nastiness.