A Bumpy Ride for the Hoovers Makes for a Thorough Enjoyable Character-Driven Comedy

Rating: 8/10 (6 August 2006)

Road movies are a particular weakness for me, and this out-of-left-field 2006 movie is no exception. It's a charmer written by first-time screenwriter Michael Arndt about a dysfunctional family that you end up liking in spite of how they often act. Co-directed by the husband and wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, this uproarious comedy obviously benefits from both perspectives in balancing the satirical elements with the subtleties of the character arcs in the Hoover family as we follow them in their dilapidated Volkswagen van.
The plot revolves around seven-year old Olive, who finds out that she is a finalist in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant to be held in Redondo Beach, California in two days. Her father Richard is a motivational speaker who wants the world to think he is the next Tony Robbins. Her grandfather has been thrown out of his retirement home for shouting expletives and snorting heroin. Her brother Dwayne reads Nietzsche and has taken a vow of silence until he gets accepted for flight training into the Air Force Academy. Her Uncle Frank, a gay academic expert at Proust, has just been released from a hospital after trying to commit suicide over his lover's abandonment. Her no-nonsense mother Sheryl tries to hold the family together through sheer will but often finds herself lost under the strained circumstances.
Eerie visions of JonBenet Ramsey will come back to you when you see the pageant climax itself but not before the actors inject a great deal of humanity into their performances. Reunited after playing a divorcing couple in 2001's "Dinner with Friends", Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette show their expertise in portraying a marriage in trouble. With a wariness corrupting his usual preppy veneer, Kinnear brings out the nasty edge of a resentful man unable to fulfill his ambitions. Collette continues to impress with her unique combination of sharp intelligence and visceral emotionalism. As Frank, Steve Carell shows a surprising ability for gravitas that his Frat Pack cronies have not yet exhibited. Veteran actor Alan Arkin is a welcome presence as Grandpa, and looking appropriately Goth-like, Paul Dano is hilariously dead-eyed as Dwayne.
Abigail Breslin is an unaffected joy as Olive, and she makes the most of the talent competition in the film's most winning moments. There are also memorable bits from Paula Newsome as a curt grief counselor; Beth Grant as a snippy, bouffant-headed pageant official; and Mary Lynn Rajskub (Chloe from "24") showing her trademark perturbed look as a contest assistant. There are some contrived moments, for example, the chance encounter between Frank and his lover in the convenience store or the free-wheeling freeway exit contortions, when reality is sacrificed for dramatic effect. On the whole, however, this idiosyncratic road movie is well worth the ride share.