Little Miss Sunshine – 2006
This was a hilarious black comedy that was very well executed, well-acted, and marvelously scripted. It was perfectly cast, and expertly directed. But it had the feel of a small independent film. There were no special effects, no A-list names, and a pretty small budget. It tells the story of a dysfunctional family that is on the verge of imploding. But the dream of the young daughter acts as a catalyst to bring them all together in a way that none of them expect.
Wikipedia sums up the main characters perfectly, saying, “Sheryl Hoover, played by Toni Collette, is an overworked mother of two living in Albuquerque. Her brother, Frank, played by Steve Carell, who is gay and a scholar of Proust, is temporarily living at home with the family after having attempted suicide. Sheryl’s husband Richard, played by Greg Kinnear, is a Type-A personality striving to build a career as a motivational speaker and life-coach. Dwayne, played by Paul Dano, Sheryl’s son from a previous marriage, is a Nietzsche-reading teenager who has taken a vow of silence until he can accomplish his dream of becoming a test pilot. Richard’s foulmouthed father, Edwin, played by Alan Arkin, recently evicted from a retirement home for snorting heroin, lives with the family. Olive, played by Abigale Breslin, the daughter of Richard and Sheryl and the youngest of the Hoover family, is an aspiring beauty queen who is coached by Edwin.”
So there’s the set-up. Each character was well-developed and real. The main thrust of the plot begins when Olive learns that she has qualified for a child beauty pageant being held in Redondo Beach, California. The family has two days in which to get her there. Each character goes through major changes along the journey so that by the time they are ready to return to Albuquerque, nobody is quite the same as when they started. In fact, Edwin dies and never actually goes back home.
Now, as a comedy, there were a number of laugh-out-loud moments in the film and a climax was a study in awkward hilarity. Remember, Edwin, the dirty old man, was the one coaching Olive in her dance routine for the beauty pageant. So neither Sheryl nor Richard knew what kind of dance their six-year-old daughter would be doing. Apparently it was an adult-style strip-tease, choreographed to the song Super Freak by Rick James. Kind of sick and incredibly inappropriate, right?
Which naturally brings me to the subject of child beauty pageants. They are sick and incredibly inappropriate, and Little Miss Sunshine lampoons them wonderfully, showing how ridiculous they can be! Yes, Olive’s routine was over the top and ludicrous, but the other eleven contestants were just as obscene and nauseating, maybe even more so, because they represented a true depiction of reality. The way young girls are dressed up as living dolls in real child beauty pageants, slathered in makeup, and displayed as sexy children is profoundly disturbing. If you see a 7 year old girl in a bikini with the big hair and heavy makeup of an adult sex goddess, something is very, very wrong. OK, I’ll get off my soapbox now.
Anyway, for me, the stand-outs among the cast were Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear. Carrell was known for his comedic participation in Comedy Central’s Daily Show with John Stewart, but not for his acting. But as the gay, suicidal Frank, he really showed audiences a serious side that nobody was expecting. And then as he grew closer to the family and learned to become a part of it, he had a real kind of gravitas that made me appreciate his contribution to that family. Richard started out as a real jerk who was so obsessed with being a winner that I just wanted to reach into the screen and punch him. But as his entire self-empowering belief system broke down and destroyed his self-confidence, he found a strength in letting go of himself and supporting his daughter. Kinnear played it all perfectly.
Another wonderfully emotional scene is the one in which Dwayne discovers that he is color blind and thus ineligible to pursue his dream and become a test pilot. His teenage meltdown was almost frightening to watch, and Dano played it well. It vaguely reminded me of some of the hormonally messed up emotions I felt during that awkward time in my own life, though maybe mine were not quite so intense.
I feel like a lot of the film can be summed up in a quote delivered by Alan Arkin as he is speaking to Olive who is afraid of being a loser in her father’s eyes. He says, “You know what a loser is? A real loser is somebody that’s so afraid of not winning they don’t even try.” Now how true is that? And while I’m talking about that scene, I have to say that Breslin was fantastic. A few tears, but not too many. Real emotion doesn’t have to be exaggerated, and she did a great job.
In fact, Breslin was nominated for Best Supporting Actress, though she did not win. However, Little Miss Sunshine did win two other awards. It took home an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, and Arkin took one home for Best Supporting Actor. Not bad for the directorial debut of husband and wife team, Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Well done, everyone!