Little Miss Sunshine | Review

Directing team feature debut hits all the right notes and the right highways.

Utilizing the cross country road trip and the banana-colored VW as a vehicle not to get the narrative from point A to point B, but as a means to express a family showing support despite the odds stacked against them, the directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris manage to bring a refreshing coat of paint to “road movie” comedies and “dysfunctional family” formulas. Sincere, smart and heartfelt the best part of Little Miss Sunshine is that it offers plenty of the popular web acronym of “LOL”.

One dreams of being a successful motivational speaker, the other aspires to a life as a fighter pilot while the littlest member wants to be a, gulp – beauty pageant winner. Olive and her family tree take the road – their hopes and dreams as part of a collective funnel. Clinical depression, teenage angst, motivating a motivational speaker and extreme self-conscious are handled with enough tact to be believable and while Michael Arndt’s screenplay does have a number of goof-ball improbabilities that muster a couple of noteworthy knee-slapping moments, it’s the dialogue exchanges that magnify each personality on an individual level or within a group that stamps the film with a sincere laugh-fest equation.

Answering the burning (10) million dollar question of is there such a thing as a family comedy that doesn’t play down to its viewers or treat its characters like cartoon figures? The Griswalds this is not, and you won’t be finding any similarities to the recent family road trip RV. The cast of misfits – is a perfect fit. With Alan Arkin, Greg Kinnear and Steve Carell the film is supplied with the comedic backbone, with Paul Dano you have the reality check, with the darling from In America in Abigail Breslin we have the soul and Toni Collette we get he backbone – and each are given enough screen time presence to make their characters count and each scene noteworthy. With their support system mantra, the film’s final roundup is perfectly tuned. Credits go to script that keeps the momentum flowing and like a castle made of legos, every sequence snaps into place.

This quickly-snapped up acquisition from Sundance should prove to be just as successful in seducing all demographics, including those who took to another Fox Searchlight property The Full Monty. With a template that sees a goal-orientated family who believe deeply in the “just do it” theory, or better yet – “you can do it” philosophy, this dramedy has wheels thanks to great ensemble cast who give the film its personality. Being ordinary has never been this extraordinary.

Sundance 2006.

Rating 3.5 stars