Casting sunshine upon life's poignant miseries. (spoilers)

Rating: 10/10 (14 August 2006)

There are several films which pompously proclaim to be the "cultural event of the decade" (Pirates of the Caribbean 2) or the movie that "defines a generation" (Step Up). And, amidst another year of, it seems, one horrible Hollywood production after another, Little Miss Sunshine stands out. It is one of the best films to be produced for the mainstream this year. A subjective opinion, sure, but it has been a long time since a theater audience has been so diverse and more importantly, reactive, in their movie-going experience, generating laughs throughout the film and at the end, applause.
Little Miss Sunshine should also be commended for a willingness to break free of much of the cookie cutter style of film-making that much of Hollywood (and a large sector of the independent sphere) has been reduced to these days, spitting out one piece of nonsense after the next. It does take a common theme -- that of a world trying so hard to sustain this outrageous semblance of "normal" and "perfection" that it seems that tragedy is inevitable for all who are unable to live up to its standards. Normal and perfection is a myth. And this has been repeated ad nausea in depressing dramas like 'Imaginary Heroes' and 'The Ice Storm,' among others (why always set this theme in the 1970s when it clearly applies to today?). But, rather than deliver another story of depressing and relentless misery upon our characters, this film offers an opportunity to laugh at everything about it even in the slightest details even though things never seem to bid well for our characters. It seems to approach things with more humor and light-heartedness, too, than say 'Welcome to the Dollhouse' which is really a sad form of mockery in that it will make you laugh only because the characters are so off-the-wall. But that's wherein their humor lies--as an oddity. That doesn't quite happen here.
The story centers on seven year old Olive (played wonderfully by Abigail Breslin). A cute kid who aspires to compete (and win) the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. A chubby, optimistic kid (a real kid, if you will), she doesn't seem like pageant material (and some of the pageant competitors are freakish rather than beautiful and hardly look suitable for seven and eight years old). But, her opportunity to compete seems to come at an inconvenient moment. Her uncle Frank (Steve Carrel) recently attempted suicide and is now living with his sister (Toni Collett) who is on the brink of divorce from her motivational speaker husband (Greg Kinnear) who is riding everything on a business deal to promote his 9-step program. Their teenage son (Paul Dano) has taken a vow of silence as an homage to Nitchze. And their grandfather (played well by Alan Arkin) is a heroin addict. It seems that for everyone, all that they aspire will eventually come crashing down around them, but in a strange (or really, outrageous) way, it is this goal of struggling to get to this Little Miss Sunshine competition that will force them to reevaluate things.
A wonderful film and probably the best I've seen all year. Perhaps its success will inspire some filmmakers to become more daring and creative (or at least, where they already are, for others to invest in that innovative style and substance).