Outstanding comedy that also asks serious social questions

Rating: 8/10 (29 August 2006)

No-one talks about the more outrageous side of family life - we pretend it doesn't exist, as if families are somehow just 'naturally happy' together. Yet it is in the strains and stresses of family life, surrounded by a deep notion of tolerance and underlying love even when you can't stand each other, that the closenesses, the true values of family are born.
"Instead of making a movie about family values, we wanted to make a film about the value of family." Little Miss Sunshine Directors, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris say they are frustrated by the "ridiculous notion of the nuclear family," which has become so prevalent in the US and the UK.
The family of Little Miss Sunshine (which is the pageant title of the youngest member, Olive) is pulling apart at the seams. Dad / Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a hopelessly optimistic motivational speaker, trying to market his "Nine Steps to Success" and also forcing it on his family at every opportunity. His Nietzsche-reading son, Dwayne, has taken a vow of silence until he gets into Air Force Academy. 'Pro-honesty' mother (Toni Collette) is constantly harried by her families eccentricities and secrets, especially after her brother Frank comes to live with them, a Proust scholar straight out of hospital for attempting suicide after being jilted by his gay lover. Into the mix comes Granddad Alan Arkin, a foul-mouthed hedonist, kicked out of retirement home for snorting heroin.
Olive, the speccy, unlikely-looking and eponymous would-be beauty-queen, throws the family into turmoil when suddenly awarded a default place in the competition as someone else drops out. In one of the most unusual road trips ever, the family travel to the pageant through tragedy and comedy and a finale that will change the way they see themselves and make us ask questions about our own values and ideals.
Little Miss Sunshine is a hilarious comedy with a refreshing honesty and ability for self-examination rarely found in mainstream movies. As it began, I though, "not my kind of movie - kids? Road trip? Light comedy? No way!" But soon I laughed till I cried, in spite of myself, and I also felt quite moved. Little Miss Sunshine works very well as a comedy, a side-splitting celebration of human eccentricities, but there are also deeper issues that can be explored through the film. The pacing is excellent (I waited many a scene to see the end of the slogan on Dwaye's T-shirt that begins, "Jesus was . . . "). How are the ideas of Nietzsche (Man and Superman) going to coalesce with those of Proust (a loser that spent 20 years writing a book hardly anyone wanted to read, but is regarded as one of the greatest writers in the English language?) So many puzzles, so many excellently honed laughs.
Director Valerie Faris helps me make sense of it: "I have to credit the writer for putting all those things together. His (Michael Arndt's) brother is a literary scholar; so much of that character (Frank) came from him. But the thing I love about all these characters is that they all have a dream, a universe they've built, and it makes them bigger than the clichéd characters. Frank has a life you can imagine reading Proust, he was very much in his head, it was an intellectual life, and his challenge is a family where there isn't much intellectual discussion going on. He's brought right down to earth, so it's that distance that he has to travel that is the major thing.
"Nietzsche's idea of transcending, for the teenager, who feels trapped in the mundane existence of suburban family life - it just shows that he's longing for something more. All these characters, they were passionate, full of longing. Just that they are reading Nietzsche or Proust tells you something." The individual aspirations of the characters - and how they are so far apart - are one of the charismatic things about the film. Co-director, Jonathan Dayton adds: "It's their passion, their aspiration. That's what we loved about them. Whether you have an innate interest in Nietzsche or Proust, what's most important is the fact that you're engaged; you're seeking greater answers and reaching to understand life in a new way: then to see their hopes dashed in so many ways, and to understand what endures after failure or disappointment. They have a world that is bigger than the immediate story." I asked if it helped that all the family were pretty intelligent people, quite articulate. "These are all smart people, but I think it's that notion of emotional intelligence. They are all passionate, and in that passion they recognise fellow travellers, even though Frank and Richard are as far from one another as you could ever be, but they are both passionate about their pursuits." Whether you see Little Miss Sunshine just with the adults in your family or group, or watch it on DVD with younger family, it is a valuable and hugely entertaining film that has some beautiful emotions under the shouting. Don't be put off by the trailer, which is not very well made and doesn't give an idea of the film.
Little Miss Sunshine took five years to make and will be delighting audiences for much longer than that into the future. It may help America reconsider the slightly worrying practice of beauty pageants for tiny tots, but it is an awesome social comment on the value of families while we are being laughing uncontrollably into our popcorn.