A Dark Comedy for the Family

Rating: 10/10 (24 November 2006)

Meet the Hoovers! Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a failed inspirational speaker. With a wife (Toni Collette) possibly having a mid-life crisis, things are falling apart. With a daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin), who wants to be a beauty queen, a mute son, Dwayne (Paul Dano), and Grandpa Edwin (Alan Arkin), who has been kicked out of a nursing home for continuing to snort heroin. (He still is.) Also along for the bumpy ride ahead is Frank (Steve Carrell), a suicidal scholar who lost his grad student lover to his rival.
When Olive gets a message one day that says she's been chosen to attend the "Little Miss Sunshine" pageant, she goes ballistic. Grandpa has been teaching her moves and she's ready to compete. With Richard's 9-step program possibly becoming a book, this can't be happening now. But surely it is! Piling into a VW bus, they travel from Albequerque to California to show beauty queens, police officers, hospital staff, and California residents a thing or two about dysfunctional. With memorable lines, scenes, and characters, "Little Miss Sunshine" is a dark comedy that can teach us about family.