Good

Rating: Null/10 (7 March 2008)

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
*** (out of 4)
A family of losers, including a suicidal uncle (Steve Carell), a cocaine addict grandfather (Alan Arkin), a failed father (Greg Kinnear), his wife (Toni Collette) and their two children hit to road for a beauty contest but things go from bad to worse. The story of a dysfunctional family going on a road trip certainly isn't anything new and in all honesty the film really didn't make me laugh as much as I was expecting but for some reason it still worked for me. What I enjoyed most were the performances by Carell and Kinnear. Both men are extremely sharp with the comedy but they also do the drama very well. Perhaps I went in expecting more laughs than the film meant to give but I felt the drama aspects went a bit too far. I found the ending somewhat disturbing but for the most part the film worked well.