Little Miss Sunshine (2006) R - 4 Stars

Wow now here's a dysfunctional looking family but actually they'd go to the ends of the earth to please their daughter and they do. When seven-year-old, Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin), raises her voice to say she wants to be the next Little Miss Sunshine at a beauty pageant, her family piles in a yellow Volkswagen van and heads from Albuquerque, NM to Redondo Beach, CA. Now Olive is not what you'd call beauty queen material. She's slightly over weight and wears horn rimmed glasses but her passion to preform shines over her exterior.

The whole family goes on the road trip. Dwayne (Paul Dano) her non talking Nietzsche reading brother, her cantankerous grandfather (Alan Arkin), her bread winning mom Sheryl (Toni Collette), her dad Richard (Greg Kinnear) book writer of a 9 step program to success and his "Refuse to Lose" philosophy, and Frank (Steve Carell) Sheryl's brother who after a unsuccessful suicide attempt over his male lover, has no where else to turn. The six pack it in and hit the road which seems to hold nothing but trouble along the way.

The players all have their personal problems that interact together and even though drug addiction, rejection, eating disorders and suicide are all not funny things, the film has a way of threading it as a normal funny routine. These misfits and losers are shown the true meaning of what it's like be a winner. I like the fact the movie focuses on all six characters individually rather than just highlighting the one. It's consistently funny throughout and easy to see why it won so many awards.

Awards include:

2006 - Little Miss Sunshine - Academy - Best Original Screenplay
2006 - Little Miss Sunshine - Academy - Best Supporting Actor
and a zillion other awards.

Big Beach Productions, Friendly Films, Bona Fide Productions
Directors: Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton
Writer: Michael Arndt
Producers: Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa, David T. Friendly

I viewed 12/06