A Charming and Wonderful Indie Dramedy

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 2010)

2006 had two Best Picture contenders that weren't loved by everybody but were still managing to get lots of awards attention. "Babel" was one of them (which I LOATHED) and the other was "Little Miss Sunshine", which I really enjoyed.
The story was nice and original, the cast was great and all of them gave great performances, and I also really cared for the characters and wanted them to succeed.
While Alan Arkin received an Oscar that was really a combined deserved/veteran win, I feel that Steve Carell and Paul Dano both gave more interesting performances and were more interesting characters and both should have received more notice. Abagail Breslin is a cute little girl and she gave a very sweet performance but I wasn't sure she was Oscar worthy for it. I was shocked to hear Dustin Hoffman say her performance was one of the best he has ever seen. Toni Collette and Greg Kinnear both shine as the parents, especially Kinnear.
I really enjoyed this movie and feel it is one of the best indie movies of the past 10 years along with being one of my favorite films of the past 10 years.