Little Miss Sunshine is a quirky character comedy that is well written for first time screenwriter Michael Arndt. There are loads of ‘road trip’ type of movies, some better than others, but this one truly had the juice worth squeezing. I laughed, teared up a bit, and actually truly felt sorry for some of the characters in the film.

This movie is about a chaotic family that is on the verge of bankruptcy because of Dad, Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear) being gung-ho regarding his 9 step motivational plan about being a ‘winner.’ He unloads his – “if you aren’t a winner than you are a loser” strategy on his entire family to the point where his wife Sheryl (Toni Collette from In her Shoes) is ready to slam his winner babble down his throat. Sheryl tries to keep her family intact, but she has to watch over her suicidal brother Frank (Steve Carell from The 40 Year Old Virgin and NBC’s The Office) a Proust Scholar who was left by his male grad-student for one of his colleagues.

Hold on now, the conflicted family doesn’t end here. Weaved into the mix is son Dwayne (Paul Dano, Girl Next Door). Dwayne is a follower of Nietzsch and decides to take a vow of silence until he makes it into flight school. (Nietzsch, wtf is that? I had to look it up in Wikipedia.) He has so much pent up aggression and I am still trying to figure out why. I guess it’s just your typical teenage angst.

I must not forget Grandpa Edwin (Oscar winner Alan Arkin). Grandpa is a raunchy, foul-mouth, nursing home kick-out, and heroin addict. This man curses relentlessly, but even with all of his issues, he provides words of wisdom to his son Richard and granddaughter Olive (Abigail Breslin of Signs) when the time is right. Olive, a runner up in her local beauty pageant received, out of the blue, the best news of her life that she gets to represent her town in the state competition. The original winner had to forfeit her crown due to a diet pill scandal that leaves Olive to compete in the state “Little Miss Sunshine” pageant in Redondo Beach, CA. Trying to get Olive to California on the family’s budget catapults this entire movie to the next level. They don’t have the cash money to fly, so they choose to drive all the way to Cali in Richard’s old VW bus. The road trip appears as if it's going to be crippled by four things:

Frank can’t be left alone.
Dwayne doesn’t want to look after him.
Grandpa doesn’t want to stay behind, he is Olive’s inspiration and dance coach and must see his girl compete.
Mom can’t drive a stick, so Dad decides to drive and can we say ROAD TRIP.

It’s not quite like National Lampoon’s Vacation. A vacation, this trip was not. Oh no sir. Shoot, how could it be when their only mode of transportation wouldn’t start unless the entire clan got out and pushed it (hence the movie poster). Crazy thing is, this burden transforms from a point of frustration during the trip into a symbol that binds the Hoovers together.

Sunshine had some cynical characters, but crazy fresh and funny. Steve Carell played a more subdued character than what we are use to seeing, but he pulled it off. His character was a nice added touch. He had great comedic timing and didn’t go over board like in “Evan Almighty.” He gets a hand clap, hand clap.

Abigail Breslin created such a touching role. I found her to be a brilliant little actress. Her acting wasn’t forced. She was NATURAL. Her character Olive truly was the thread that wove the scenes together. This movie had a great message that was delivered in a humorous way. I can seen why it won the Oscar for the ‘Most Original Screenplay.’

I liked this mixed bag of nuts family. They kept my attention and had me laughing. I was truly entertained.

My Rating ~ 4 Reels

Audience Rating (What's Yours?)

Reel Talk

Warning! Reel Talk is my to-the-point comments and opinions—and it contains spoilers. Don’t read this if you plan to watch this movie!

Show me the Reel Talk!

Olive

This little girl is very sweet, loving, and positive, so why for the love of peanut M&Ms do I want to rip on her? She is 7 years old! They made this little girl in this flick a HOT MESS. She had on those red cowboy boots with some shorty shorts that provided her with the biggest wedge. I know she won – by default of course – to be able to compete in “Little Miss Sunshine”, so why didn’t anyone in her family do some major research before they drove 700 miles to sunny California and entered that girl in the contest?

Those soccer moms are CRAZY about girl pageants. It is a crying shame how they make up those little girls to look like women. Those girls were walking and bouncing there booties around like they were 18 years old. I couldn’t believe my eyes. That has to be a pedophiles playground. If you have never seen one of these little girl pageants, then you have NO IDEA. It is eerie to say the least.

Olive rolls up in there, looking just as plain as can be. Don’t get me wrong, she’s a cute little girl, but dang it if she didn’t need some Mystic Tan and some make up like the other contestants. I was thinking, “Mom, come on… hook your daughter up.” Lip gloss just wasn’t going to do. Her little costume looked nothing like the other girls. truly felt bad for her. I really did. One thing I can say, Olive was a trooper. She was who she was.

The Dance

THEN THE DANCE… Oh my WORD….. The dance… Her dancing abilities #1 were HOORREEEEELLBUULL . And the choreography was straight from Carmen Elektra’s striptease work out video. Her Grandpa the choreographer should have known better. But then again, Grandpa is a heroine snorting, porn magazine buying, cursing foul mouth old man.

Grandpa-Edwin

Oscar Winning performance. No… he really did win the Oscar for this. This old man was a trip. He didn’t apologize for his short comings. He loved his family. hen the time came, it was cool he gave his son Richard support, and praise when it was obvious that he was treading in the waters of loserville. I just thought about something, grandpa was an ollldddd ho bag. He was getting busy all up and through the nursing home. EWWWWWW.

Dwayne

What is up with white teenagers thinking that their life is sooooooo bad? In Sunshine, Dwayne comes from a loving 2 parent home. His belly is fed, he has his own bedroom, and he hates his family, or so he says. Ummmm… WHY? Am I suppose to feel sorry for him? hhh.. No. ell, actually I did at one time when he found out that he couldn’t join the Air Force. But, wait! Now if my son told me he hated me and the entire family and ripped us a new butt hole, I might have had to bust his lip.

Frank

Oh Frank. ow this man is a Proust SCHOLAR… mmm kay.. He had a great job… and he decides to kill himself because his gay Grad Student left him to be with another man. Love hurts, we all know this, but do you have to go and try to kill yourself? Well, we all know he botched it. I will just have to come back to Frank.

Richard

Dad, Richard is all about Winner and Losers. If you ask me he was kind of a loser for tying up the family funds into the ‘Refuse To Lose ‘ plan. Some may say he is a risk taker and can appreciate the fact that he stepped out on faith and tried something new. Okay…. But the fact remains, the deal didn’t go through and the money ain’t coming. He has his family driving 700 miles to California in a Scooby Doo Van that can’t get started unless it is on a hill or 5 people are pushing the Shaggy Mobile from behind. h and they had to run the 50 yard dash to get it started like Fred Flinstone and Barney Rebel. Heck NAHHHH. ain’t trying. But, for this odd ball, idiosyncratic family, it actually works and brings them together.

Frozen Fathers

I do have to ask though… How many of you would take your father’s dead body from the hospital and throw it into the back of your car/van/truck …whatever to complete your road trip goal of making it to a child's beauty pageant? Exactly… ZERO.