One of the best of 2006

Rating: 9/10 (8 September 2006)

This is one little treasure of a movie whose total cost was about the same as the make-up budget for any blockbuster out there. It rings not a false note from start to finish, the cast meshes like they have lived together for years and the road trip busts all the hollywoodizations of all the movie road-trips we have taken.
Newcomer Abigail Breslin is amazing in a part where she is on screen most of the time and has to run the full gamut of emotions. Her strong desire to take part in a contest many hundred miles from home drives the plot.
If a family could be called "Dysfunction Junction" this one is it. From Alan Arkin, who plays the role of the heroin junkie grandfather (he insists the time to do drugs is when you're old and not young, as then you need them!)and curses and swears incessantly, to Paul Dano who plays the son - most of the time wordlessly, all the way to Toni Collette who is at the end of her rope as the mother to this barely together family.
Greg Kinnear plays the put-upon manic father beautifully (my way or the highway) and Steve Carell is remarkable in a very difficult role as a suicidal professor. Delicious surprising dialogue and you can't ever tell where it is going. Subtle putdowns of the entire beauty contest phenomenon in the states and the contest itself is enough to make you want to throw up, these tiny little girls dressed as hookers.
So many laughs and true emotional moments - more than I could count. Finally, in this decade a real family that resonates and a breathtaking ending. Yes!
9 out of 10 and I would see it again.