Rating: ****.5/*****
Official site: Little Miss Sunshine
Cast of ‘Little Miss Sunshine’: Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin and Abigail Breslin
Another one of those black comedies… (hmm, I seem to be acquiring that sort of taste these days…) This film is about a family so dysfunctional, so fractured, and yet so united as one, that it’s hard not to love them, plus shed a tear or two over their misadventures.
There’s Dad, one of the biggest losers you’d ever meet, who peddles his ‘9 steps to success’, more aptly termed as ‘9 steps not to be like me’. He’s so dogged at being successful that he just keeps ‘running head-on into the concrete wall’, instead of around it. One word to describe him - pathetic, but very funny to laugh at. Heh.
Then there’s Mum, forever harried, nagging her children, struggling to support the family and quarrelling with her husband over the bills… (a lot like many of those mothers out there I suppose).
There’s Frank, an ex-professor, depressed-suicidal who’s fired from his position after he had an affair with his student (also a guy)… currently lodging temporarily with the Hoovers, so that they can keep an eye on him… Actually, he looks so different from the rest of the family, he doesn’t seem like their uncle?
Then there’s Grandpa, snorting his coke and perpetually thinking about porn, and dishing out advice to Dwayne to ‘f… more women’ in his life… Despite the crass language, he’s an extremely lovable guy, and provides much comic relief to the film… he’s sooo dysfunctional!
Next up, Dwayne, the brother, who has taken this 9 month-long vow of silence, and has an affect as flat as our PIE, communicates with his family via scribbles on his notepad. Declares ‘I hate everyone’, and tries to pretend to be aloof and uncaring, but the part when he wrote ‘Go hug mom’ to his sister, really warms our hearts.
Finally, there’s the irrepressible OLIVE! Chubby, enthusiastic, with her big dreams of becoming Little Miss Sunshine of California; she might be the youngest actor, but surely the one who left me the greatest impression. She looks so huggable!
Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin) charms us with her innocence, big dreams and sweet smiles.
The entire family of misfits set off in a road trip in a bus just as malfunctional as them, from Albuquerque to California, rushing for the pageant. The trip is punctuated by a series of misadventures, of failures, bad news, and even a death. Which tones down the comedy really nicely, before a rousing, super hilarious ending at what transpires at the beauty pageant.
This is one film where I won’t reveal the plot. You all would just think it’s boring. This is a film where a review doesn’t and can’t do it justice. It’s a film where we identify ourselves with the characters, where we’re brought to laugh at their bumblings (and indirectly, at our own) and through it, be healed (from our cynicism) and feel much better about our ‘defects’.
