Little Miss Sunshine: A Dark Comedy With a Gay Bent
by Matthew Cole Weiss, July 27, 2006

In Little Miss Sunshine, Fox Searchlight's new family road trip dramedy, Steve Carell plays Uncle Frank, a gay man who recently attempted suicide after his lover left him for his arch rival. Seeing no point in living, Frank slits his wrists, only to survive and end up in a different type of hell: living with his sister and her family.

That's when the real fun begins.

Directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, Little Miss Sunshine is a sweet, neurotic piece of cinema that's a delight from start to finish. Revolving around the Hoover family, it primarily tells the story of young Olive (the brilliant Abigail Breslin, who puts Dakota Fanning to shame) whose dream is to be a beauty pageant winner. When she's invited to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in California, her eclectic family embarks on a road trip filled with revelations, realizations, and quirky adventures.

Olive is surrounded by a family of dysfunction. We meet them one-by-one as Uncle Frank enters the Hoover household. Each one of them is holding on by a thread, on the edge of a breakdown. When they begrudgingly leave for the road trip, each must deal with the flaws within themselves and each other.

Greg Kinnear plays Richard, the family patriarch who makes a living by preaching optimism. He believes everyone can choose to be a winner in life, and he always keeps a smile on his face. Beneath the smile, however, Richard is facing his own disintegration.

Unbeknownst to his family, he is facing bankruptcy as the book deal he was relying on has fallen through. As Richard falls apart, getting his daughter to the beauty pageant becomes his sole purpose in life. And nothing--not the police, not his car breaking down, not even his screwed up family--will keep him from getting her there. Kinnear plays Richard effortlessly, and watching him snap like a twig is both engaging and fascinating.

Olive's older brother is Dwayne, a teenage Nietzche fan obsessed with getting into the Air Force. He's taken a vow of silence and resorts to describing his familial hell on his notepad. Up and coming actor Paul Dano brings an empathy to the character that will resonate with today's youth. When Dwayne discovers he can't get into the Air Force due to a medical problem, his breakdown is both primal and realistic.

Also along for the ride is Grandpa, played by Alan Arkin. He tells it like it is, but also carries his own secret: his addiction to heroin. What could play as cheesy actually becomes quite emotional thanks in part to Arkin's heartfelt portrayal.

Toni Collette plays Sheryl, the free-thinking mom who likes to be honest and open with Olive. As she tries to hold her family together, Collette smokes cigarettes like a fiend in an attempt to calm her increasingly frazzled nerves.

Page 1 / 2 - Next