One of the summer's biggest surprises? Are you serious?

Rating: 5/10 (13 January 2007)

If I looked up the word "overrated" in the dictionary, I wouldn't be surprised if I read the words 'Little Miss Sunshine' scrawled across the definition. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to bring myself to understand why this was the "biggest and most pleasant surprise" of last summer. What exactly is so special or endearing about this sad little story? Frankly, I found it to be frustrating more than anything else.
For the entire movie, we're stuck with a dismal and dysfunctional family whose last hope at some sort of happiness seems to lie with getting the littlest of the bunch, Olive, to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in California. So they all pile into their vintage VW bus and brace themselves for the long trip ahead. But along the way, it seems that one bad thing after another keeps happening to this poor family, which only makes the discontented lives of these people that much more bothersomethey just can't seem to win no matter what. If it's not the car falling apart, it's the disgruntled, Nietzsche-reading teenage son that discovers he's colorblind (and in turn won't be able to pursue his goal of becoming an Air Force Pilot). And if it's not the father, Richard, failing at getting his personal betterment plan published, then it's the grandfather dying of a heroin overdose! This movie just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it?! It's only the fitting icing on the cake when poor Olive makes a fool of herself during her talent segment and is removed from the final judging for being such an embarrassment to the pageant. And at the end, they all pile into their decrepit VW and drive on home.
So I ask those of you who actually enjoyed this movie what exactly was the point of going through all that? Am I supposed to feel all warm and toasty inside because, despite all the misfortunes that the family had to endure on this road trip, they all managed to "grow" in some way? Okay, so we should all be proud of Olive for not conforming to the synthetic world of pageantry by just being herself, even if that means not winning. And we should all be pleased that Dwayne finally outgrew his "vow of silence" stage and finally started to show that he could exhibit some emotion and learn to care about something outside his own agonizing adolescence. And we should all be uplifted that the Hoovers never gave in to defeat and always managed to trek on, because "you're only a loser if you don't try". Trust me, I get all that. I just didn't find the underlying message to be all that moving. In some movies that sort of thing works, but it didn't seem to gel here. The only thing I got out of this film were a few chuckles brought on by brief moments of dark humor that somehow managed to be funny. And furthermore, did the movie really need all that profanity? Did the F-bomb's help to further the humor in some way, and it just managed to escape me? I doubt it. It was completely unnecessary.
I assure you, I really wanted to like this movie. I'm a lover of all films, including the dark, offbeat quirky comedies like this one tried to be. But unlike other dark comedies, this wasn't all that funny. That's kind of a requirement, isn't it? With all the buzz surrounding Little Miss Sunshine and all the good things I kept hearing about it, I had nothing but high hopes for the time when I could actually sit down and watch it. But when the time came, the experience wasn't what I expected it would be and I was sorely let down. It's such a shame too because I was really encouraged by the casting choices (Kinnear, Collette, Arkin and Carell are all great talents). I'm convinced, though, that the let down was of no fault of the actors; just the general circumstances and the events that unfolded throughout the story. And I'm especially disappointed that this movie found a spot in the IMDb's Top 250. Seriously, is this the best we can come up with? Oy! Spare me!