Little Miss Sunshine (R)

Every year there are a few indie-films that are plucked from obscurity and for some reason or another are given the limelight. In 2006, a little road trip movie was released with two no-name directors and only a few actors that are noteworthy. This film was “Little Miss Sunshine,” directed by a rarely seen man-woman pair of directors in Johnathon Dayton and Valerie Faris. These two were primarily involved with the production of music videos, but were coaxed out of their comfort zone by an Oscar winning script by Michael Arndt. As far as big name actors go, you really only have Greg Kinnear and Alan Arkin. The film also boasts Paul Dano, Steve Carell, and Bryan Cranston – all relatively unknown at the time of shooting. Using logical thought alone, this film shouln’t have been a hit, but it made a worldwide gross of $100M off an $8M budget. That is pretty phenomenal by anyone’s standards. 

The plot revolves around a young, aspiring beauty queen, Olive (Abigail Breslin) being trained by her grandfather, Edwin (Alan Arkin). Olive gets through to the finals of The Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. The only problem is that Olive’s parents Richard (Greg Kinnear) and Sheryl (Toni Collette), don’t have the money to get there, with the added bonus of having to take care of Sheryl’s suicidal brother Frank (Steve Carell). Olive’s brother, Dwayne (Paul Dano) is forced to come after; Sheryl agreed to give Dwayne permission to go to flight school which is Dwayne’s dream. Dano’s character has taken a vow of silence until he achieves his goal, which really shows to his acting ability as he can convey a perfect character without saying a word. 

The characters of “Little Miss Sunshine” are so balanced and work off each other so well that one could write a couple of pages on each of them. Every single one of them has there moment to shine. Breslin is one of the few instances of a child actor not being so annoying that I want to throw something at the screen. She gives a brilliant performance of a young girl being pressured by internal and external forces but ultimately being the heart of the film. While all the other characters are drowning in their own cynical natures, Olive remains the face of innocence and acts as a diffuser for some of the film’s most emotional moments.

Edwin, at first glance, seems like a complete ass. He’s a drug-addict and is incredibly foul-mouthed. He is, however, grounded by Olive. You can tell Edwin is a second father to Olive, as her actual Dad doesn’t pay much attention to her. You come to realise that Edwin is one of the most loving characters of the film. This brings us on to Richard, a motivational speaker trying to get his nine-steps programme off the ground but failing miserably at that and being a person in general. His obsession with his own work clouds what is really important to him. That is corrected in what might be the funniest conflict resolution in film history.

Sheryl is probably the weakest character in the movie. She really only serves as a catalyst to move the plot forward while not contributing to the plot itself – one of few black marks on an otherwise great movie. On the flip side, we move on to the most interesting character, Frank. Frank is a suicidal, gay scholar who lost his job and the person he loved. He is the most depressed one out of them all but he is also the most grounded and “normal.” As you go through the film you see Frank slowly become happier and happier, until he just looks like another person instead of the guy you see in the opening scene being picked up from the hospital because of self-inflicted wounds. I’ve already talked a bit about Dano’s Dwayne. I’ll leave at this: if this doesn’t prove that Paul Dano is one of the most talented actors working today, then I don’t know what will. Even giving a brief description on each character takes up quite a bit of space so you can imagine what they are actually like to see. 

There is, however, one more character that is worth mentioning. If you have seen any promotions for “Little Miss Sunshine” then you have seen it, ‘The Van.’ I sound like I’m introducing a horror B-movie, but there is legitimate argument. The van carries a good portion of the film to the point where it becomes not only part the family, but it becomes the family. There are very clear parallels to draw between the family and the van. Common sense dictates that neither should work at all. In fact they should both collapse in on each other way before they reach California. The simple fact is that neither of them should be working…but for Olive’s sake, they will carry on. It really speaks to the writing that I can think of an inanimate object as another character but here I am, speaking highly of a bright yellow VW.

Lastly, I want to talk about the films satire of the over-sexualisation of children in modern culture. In the film’s climax Olive is about to perform the routine Edwin taught her. This is after every other act to which most of the family looked on at in disgust as children no older than ten were being judged on what they looked like. This even drives Richard and Dwayne to try and stop Olive from performing. Olive then gives off a rendition of ‘Superfreak’ by Rick James in absolutely zero make-up or sparkly outfits and is a genuinely heart warming scene.

“Little Miss Sunshine” achieves something very odd in making me want to cry for the entire running time and then in the last 20 minutes making me feel happy beyond all reasonable thought. It is indeed a feel good, dark-comedy.

– by Paul O’Connor