I really wanted to like this movie...

Rating: 5/10 (25 February 2007)

...but I could not bring myself to get past certain plot elements in order to do so.
The performances were great; the ensemble work was the best thing about this film. Greg Kinnear as a manic self-help guru wanna-be heads the household filled with misfits. Alan Arkin plays Grandpa with no filter on his mouth, but he makes an endearing old man addicted to sniffing heroin. Oddly enough, he is the best friend to his granddaughter (Abigail Breslin's Olive). Their relationship is a special one, and he is her only real voice of reason, as well as her "pageant-coach".
This is really where the appeal stops for me. I appreciate plot devices that really tear a family apart and put them back together, but this time it felt very contrived.
**SPOLIER** I felt taken out of the film after Grandpa overdoses and dies, specifically the "body-snatching scene" at the hospital. This absolutely did not work for me. As an obstacle to the family's journey, this felt more akin to something along the lines of a National Lampoon device. The movie felt cheapened because of the stupidity and mania of the family tossing Grampa's body in the back of the VW van and taking off in order to get to the pageant in California that day. Even worse, the family gets stopped by a patrolman on the highway- again, stupidity is the order of the day. The cop is very serious about checking out rear of the van, but melts when some porno magazines (bought the previous day by Steve Carrell's Frank) fall out. Forgetting all about his probable-cause search, the cop let's the family go in a bout of cheerful lechery, despite the big white sheet covering the form of a human figure. Again, a cheap way and useless scene to try and infuse some tension. It didn't fit, and it wasn't the least bit funny. I expected better; much better. The pageant itself was mildly entertaining, but not enough to save this film from the strange mediocrity that it puts itself into.
All in all, this film, in my opinion, should not have been nominated for Best Picture in the first place. What carries it are the performances (these nominations I don't dispute at all- Abigail and Alan do nicely); the only redeeming factors of "Little Miss Sunshine". I am all for weird plot twists and horribly uncomfortable situations in films, but the writing of "Little Miss Sunshine" leaves little room and balance for anything worth being considered redeeming.
5 out of 10