Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is the tale of a seemingly functional dysfunctional family as they drive to California for the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin) has qualified to enter Little Miss Sunshine and practices daily with her coach, who happens to be her heroin-snorting, obscenity-yelling grandpa (Alan Arkin). Her mother Sheryl (Toni Collette) promises to get Olive to Redondo Beach, California even though Olive’s wannabe motivational speaker father Richard (Greg Kinnear) claims they cannot afford the trip. Olive’s brother Dwayne (Paul Dano), who has taken a vow of silence until he joins the Air Force Academy, and Uncle Frank (Steve Carell), who needs constant supervision due to a recent suicide attempt, are forced to tag along on this makeshift family vacation.

I could tell you about all of their misadventures along the way, but it isn’t necessary. You should see the movie to know what they are. What I will tell you is Little Miss Sunshine is all sorts of wonderful.

The sets aren’t beautifully amazing locations, but simplistically perfect. The Hoover home is a simple one in Albuquerque. Instead of using the standard Southwestern style, the art department has chosen to go with a simple monotone palette. The set is there, but it is definitely in the background because even the knick-knacks fall into the beige-yellow color scheme of the home. Choosing this helps the clutter exist, yet still feel simple. It emphasizes the financial situation of the family without screaming and beating you over the head with it. The hotel has different color schemes for each room and looks exactly like those cheesy motels in Anywhere, USA, where the bedspread and curtains match and clash all at the same time.

A lot of times, independent features have the soundtracks you notice most and that holds true for Little Miss Sunshine. With Garden State, it was the CD you had to buy. With Little Miss Sunshine, it is the soundtrack that perfectly matches the expressions and body language of the characters. These aren’t simply tunes that sound cool or a score that happens to work. The music matches every other aspect of the film, from the colors and lighting to the tone of the scene. Little Miss Sunshine doesn’t have a soundtrack that distracts from the film, but one that is one role of many working together in the movie.

While the characters alone might seem a bit overdone in independent cinema, the casting was perfect, allowing for the actors to really bring their roles to life. The first scene with the entire family together is an example of how well the actors work, not only for their individual roles, but also as a collective cast. They are around the dinner table and their dysfunctionality as a family is exposed by showing the random intricacies of each character. A simple glance or shrug accompanied with the right tone of voice makes this family unit believable. They aren’t the hokey, cheesed-out, everyone gets along, dream family. But they are far from the over-the-top, dramarama, unbelievable, everyone hates each other a little too much family either. There is the right amount of camaraderie and disgust to make the Hoovers a realistic American family.

Article Author: Cara de Pescado

In real life she's Erin McMaster, but Cara de Pescado is one of the fortunate ones to be considered a Masked Movie Snob. She puts her fins to work and writes Reviews From A Fishbowl.

Visit Cara de Pescado's author page — Cara de Pescado's Blog