Little Miss Sunshine

Revisited this film again last night, and we still loved it dearly. I don’t even know where to begin... How about a simple plot synopsis? Ok. The film follows a family that takes a road trip to California so that their 7-year old daughter can compete in a beauty pageant called ‘Little Miss Sunshine’. Along the way they face tons of odd and hilarious obstacles, but what really makes this film so amazing is the tightly drawn characters. I am reminded of the type of characters that Paul Anderson creates in his films (i.e. RUSHMORE and BOTTLE ROCKET – probably one of my top 5 films of all time. You’ve heard this before).

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE Trailer Here

In LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE the characters consist of: A suicidal, gay uncle; motivational speaker/novel/entrepreneur father; heroin-snorting, sex addict grandfather; speechless, future pilot, pessimist son; happy-go-lucky, secret smoking mother; and Olive – the fun loving 7-year old, who has dreams of being a beauty queen. What a crew! Throw them in a yellow VW bug on a 800-mile trip to California and we’re bound to have interesting journey full of ‘those types of moments’.

The movie really is full of desolate characters with little or no hope in life. The uncle, brother, and grandfather are outright depressed and fed up with life, trying to scrap by any way they can from one day to the next. The father too is secretly in a funk regarding life. Although he bottles up his concerns and emotions to keep up the façade of the ‘9 steps’ to happiness or success or whatever. The mother also has her demons. How could one not when you live and deal with types of people ever day? Her smoking is justified. Amongst the garbage dump, there is one bright shining flower: Olive. As Amanda keenly pointed out, the title of the film serves much more than just the name of the beauty pageant; those clever screenwriters. 

Olive is the only redeeming quality of this film. Her innocence and joy for life keeps everything from sinking. Even though the characters at countless times try to bring her down, she will not bend to their negativity and pessimism. Some examples where they try to bring her down: the ice cream discussion on how it will make her fat and the dinner table suicide talk (when Steve Corell says he likes men, she responds “that’s silly” = awesome). Her family does have her best interests at heart though. They realize that she is the only pure one left. At the restaurant the uncle, brother, grandpa, and mother come to Olifve’s rescue by eating the ice cream and peer pressuring into do it because the father obviously has issues. And they try to protect her before she goes on to do her singing number, and then again they all jump on stage to preserve her innocent and joyful spirit.

The film is full of genuinely funny moments and vulnerable, accessible characters. We can relate to their experiences and their journey. In closing, some of my favorite moments:
- The car horn
- Steve Carell’s comment as the people start to boo Olive. Amazing
- The Grandpa’s words of advice for the son
- The son’s note he write to Steve Carell before they go to bed
- The doctor yelling for the grief counselor to come meet with the family. “Linda!” classic

Rating: 9.5/10