Little Miss Perfect

Rating: 9/10 (2 October 2006)

Little Miss Sunshine opens with Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin) watching, ad nauseam, the crowning of Miss America on television. Olive dreamily mimics Miss Wherever's pageant-perfect motions as we see the cathode rays reflecting in her coke bottle glasses. And thank God for those glasses because they are the only thing protecting sweet little Olive from the horrors of the outside world. As if her glasses were a catcher in the rye, the filter keeping her ideals. Who else would she count on for protection? Her family? Richard (Greg Kinnear) the motivational speaker that can't seem to get past his own insecurities? Dwayne ( Paul Dano) her Nietzsche inspired brother, who has taken a "God is dead," en vogue, vow of silence until he becomes a fighter pilot? Or maybe her uncle Frank (Steve Carell) a Proust scholar who, due to a public embarrassment involving a gay grad student, is recovering from a suicide attempt? Clearly things look bleak for Olive. But then we find out that she is a finalist in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Meaning, the family must find a way to get from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach in a day. The trip is delightfully dysfunctional; from shattered dreams to family quarrels this movie is as tragic as it is funny. It is comparable to having the girl of your dreams on a long anticipated date only you're stricken with crippling diarrhea. But for some reason you try to fight through it despite the sweat beading up your forehead and the pressure on your sphincter. What can you do but laugh? Sure your fantasies are gone and your dreams of romance are dashed but, boy, what a story.
And that is the issue of Little Miss Sunshine. Olive is the only member of the Hoover family that still believes that dreams can come true. Grandpa (Alan Arkin) is the only one that recognizes it. Grandpa has presumably led a lifetime of missed opportunities and regret so he is making up for it now. Snorting heroin in the old folks home, buying the dirtiest porn he can find and telling his grandson that he only does one thing he should sleep with a lot of women.
The laugh-out-loud moments (yeah yeah, omg! Lol! Rofl!!!) are everywhere but the best, far and away revolve around the broken down VW Bus. Due to a mechanical error beyond my comprehension the bus cannot switch from first to second gear. Meaning each time the van stops it has to roll down a hill or be pushed to a start. This provides for several hysterical moments: the misfits establishing pecking order of pushers, Olive leaping in after being forgotten at a gas station or Frank running exactly as you would imagine a homosexual Proust scholar to run.
In the end, the movie gets little bit cheesy and sophomoric but it works. The family finally makes it to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Viewers and characters alike revel in the haunting aura of the child beauty pageant. The scenes are captivating and chilling in a way that makes you want to grab Olive yourself and save her from this horror. But like a true underdog dreamer Olive perseveres and after all, that is how she would have liked it.