The Sun Shines on Little Miss Sunshine
Little Miss Sunshine is a warm, quirky, funny film about a family of losers who have only one another. When the chips are down (and in Little Miss Sunshine, the chips for this oddball family are nothing but) they somehow manage, each in his or her own way, to rise above their own personal and professional crises to meet the deep needs within one another.
I left the theater feeling that this was one of the sweetest movies I have seen in some time. The troubled adults in the movie, dealing with professional failures, suicide attempts and broken hearts, rally around a young girl who chases after her dreams as a contestant in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Olive is so outclassed in this almost grotesque pageant with little girls parading around like adults that the film seems close to becoming farce. Or heartbreaking. But the deft touch delivered by the two first-time feature film directors perfectly blends comedy and melodrama without descending into the melodramatic.
As sweet as this movie is, it's not for the whole family. The adult subject matter pales in comparison to the foul-mouthed (but very funny) grandfather, played by Alan Arkin. Greg Kinnear and Steve Carell head the cast along with the scene-stealing Olive, played by Abigail Breslin.
I left the theater feeling that this was one of the sweetest movies I have seen in some time. The troubled adults in the movie, dealing with professional failures, suicide attempts and broken hearts, rally around a young girl who chases after her dreams as a contestant in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Olive is so outclassed in this almost grotesque pageant with little girls parading around like adults that the film seems close to becoming farce. Or heartbreaking. But the deft touch delivered by the two first-time feature film directors perfectly blends comedy and melodrama without descending into the melodramatic.
As sweet as this movie is, it's not for the whole family. The adult subject matter pales in comparison to the foul-mouthed (but very funny) grandfather, played by Alan Arkin. Greg Kinnear and Steve Carell head the cast along with the scene-stealing Olive, played by Abigail Breslin.
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