Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Little Miss Sunshine, 2006

Directed by Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris
Written by Michael Arndt



The trailer for Little Miss Sunshine promised two things: a dynamite cast and a screaming child. Therefore, I was simultaneously prepared to love and hate it. The good news is that the tempting cast -- Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, and Greg Kinnear -- is every bit as good as you would hope, and the better news is that the screaming child (Abigail Breslin) just screams that one time, and isn't an annoying or cutesy character at all. So everything else is just gravy.

Sunshine follows a bitterly askew family on a long road trip to a beauty pageant in which their sweet, unpretentious daughter Olive (Breslin) is an unlikely contestant. It's a familiar journey, hitting many of the touchstones of the dysfunctional-family and road-movie genres, but writer Michael Ardnt and co-directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have the good sense to employ the genre conventions that work best, and to keep them fresh with the specificity of their characters and earnestness of their cast. (My favorite unlikely detail: The rebellious teenage son [Paul Dano] wants to stick it to the man by joining ... the U.S. Air Force.) The actors never step out of character to ironically comment on the absurdity of their situation, which keeps them welcome traveling companions for the duration of the film.

Oddly, the most out-of-place element in the film is its best performance. Steve Carell is so haunted as the suicidal uncle that he doesn't belong in this sunny comedy. The character is given a few scenes towards the beginning that suggest a rich backstory, but once the family hits the road, his pathos are no longer convenient for the main plot line, and so he is mostly swept aside and expected to be all better in order to participate in the rest of the film. I hope Carell soon finds a film where he can have a full go at such a dramatic character.

I don't want to spoil the ending, so I'll just say that the most enjoyable aspect of the movie is the absurd, unintentionally-beating-them-at-their-own game finale, and from an absent character's boomerang effects on the family's fate. It's just the right conclusion to this kooky, rag-tag film.

Grade: B+