Little Miss Sunshine
Rated: R
Runtime: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Starring:
Greg Kinnear - Richard
Toni Collette - Sheryl
Steve Carell - Frank
Paul Dano - Dwayne
Abigail Breslin - Olive
Alan Arkin - Grandpa
Little Miss Sunshine is like Napoleon Dynamite with slightly better music, slightly more heart, and slightly more structure. What makes these two films so similar? Quirk. It's about cramming as much quirkiness into a film has possible. In some ways LMS has more quirk seeing as it has more characters. There's Greg Kinnear as an aspring self-help guru but whose "winners and losers" system makes it easy to understand why he's still small-time. Alan Arkin plays his father who is full of piss, vinegar, and heroin but still helps Olive (Abigail Breslin) work on her routine to win the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pagent. Olive's gay Uncle Frank (Steve Carell) is the nation's best Proust scholar and recently tried to kill himself after a rival recieved a genius grant. Frank's nephew Dwayne (Paul Dano) wants to get into the air force academy and will not speak a word until he accomplishes that goal. He communicates mainly through pen and paper. The only relatively normal character is wife/mother/sister Sheryl (Toni Collette).
But you need an oddball cast for a road picture such as this. The entire family gathers into a crappy VW bus and heads from Albekerque to California so Olive can participate in a little girl's beauty pagent. Not far along the way, the bus breaks down and the family has to push it to get it gear and then jump in the moving vehicle. So I ask you, which is the oddest thing in this picture:
- Crappy Self-Help Guru Dad
- Heroin-snorting, pagent-routine-creating Grandpa
- Gay, suicidal, Proust-scholar Uncle
- Mute Son
- Crappy VW Bus
It seems like a lot but what makes Little Miss Sunshine grow beyond this quirk is that the film has heart. These characters don't stay quirky but rather grow and become more interesting people. They're not one-dimensional jokes with predictible antics. It's a fractured family that goes from fighting with each other to fighting for each other. While that may seem a little sappy and lame, writer Michael Arndt and directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris wisely play the quirky and the corny so that the film never seems like too much of either.
But most of the credit must go to the ensemble. While this picture marks the rising star of young actors Dano and Breslin and another quality film for Kinnear, Collette, and Arkin, the real breakout is Carell. While The 40-Year-Old Virgin and The Office may increase his askin price, this film makes you reconsider him as an actor as he conveys not only humor (which is not surprising given Carell's immense comic talent) but deep sadness, wisdom, and inner-turmoil. And these unexpected moments from Carell don't appear in big monologues or moments of high conflict. They appear where they can usually be found in any great performance: in the eyes, in the posture, and in subtle gestures.
Before I finish, I must note the wonderful soundtrack, mainly provided by the band DeVotchKa. I can't get their song "How It Ends" out of my head and I don't want to. I'm sure someone who actually knows what they're talking about when it comes to music will call me out on this comment but I see DeVotchKa as like the Polyphonic Spree except with a less-is-more approach. The music works perfectly and I've been trying to find all their music since.
Little Miss Sunshine is an oddball film and sometimes it's a litle too in love with that idea. But once the film gets past the gimmicks of these characters and shows them connecting as people, the film begins to mirror the transformation of the characters and grows into something richer and more rewarding. It's almost a relief to see a film that rather than fall apart in the third act, reaches its apex and ends stronger than it began. Unless you're feeling downright curmogeonly, then Little Miss Sunshine is a great filmgoing experince. I've been to two free screenings and both ended with applause. If you liked Napoleon Dynamite, then I have a feeling you'll like this film even better.
Words by
Matt Goldberg
9.1.06
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