A little bespectacled girl in front of a television watching a beauty pageant and rehearsing her ‘emotional displays’ if and when she wins a pageant herself.
Her father teaching a nine-step never-say-die success program to a class whose strength could be counted off on the fingers of one hand.
Her stepbrother is a Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche reading young boy of 15, who has taken a vow of silence and wants to be a test pilot.
Her grandfather is a heroin addict.
Her anxious mother, lies through her teeth and begs for support of her family, to take care of her gay brother(the girl’s uncle).
The gay uncle has recently attempted suicide, and is now in a hospital.
That is how the opening credits run… its bleak, its dark, but somehow its pathos has its own brand of a very dark cynical humour; mocking these people’s every failure. The movie has just begun… its “Little Miss Sunshine.”
The Cast:
· *Abigail Breslin *. Olive(The little girl)
· Greg Kinnear . Richard(The father)
· *Paul Dano *. Dwayne(The brother)
· *Alan Arkin *. Edwin/ Grandpa(Self-explanatory)
· Toni Collette . Sheryl(The mother)
· Steve Carell . Frank(The gay uncle)
The Directors:
The husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.
The Script:
The script was purchased from first time screenwriter *Michael Arndt *for$250, 000.
The Storyline:
The set up is a small everyday, dysfunctional family, * the Hoovers* living in Albuquerque [pronounced ‘al-ba-coor-ky’], New Mexico. Sheryl is an overworked mother of two who has taken it upon herself to help her brother Frank. He was the pre-eminent Proust scholar before getting fired from his job. He is a gay and has recently recovered from a failed suicide attempt after a series of ‘unfortunate events’. Dwayne is Sheryl’s son from a previous marriage, who reads Nietzsche, hates “everyone” and has not spoken for the past 9 months when the movie begins. Richard is an enterprising person of sorts who wants to coach the masses on a motivational 9-step success program, to channel his own success. His father, grandpa, has been recently evicted from a comfortable retirement home, and has taken to heroin addiction. His bond with his seven-year-old granddaughter Olive is close: he is her mentor, coach and primary morale booster for her participation in various beauty pageants.
After a rather heated and unusually expository dinner scene, Olive learns that she can take part in the “prestigious” Little Miss Sunshine pageant, to be held in Redondo Suites, California in two days time.
After much haranguing and being unable to afford any other alternative, the family decides to drive down to California; all six of them… and their vehicle for the journey, an old yellow-white two tone Volkswagen type 2 mini bus.
In the grand fashion of many a road trip movies, each of the character undergoes an individual arc(which I will not tell you, because I would want you to experience the movie for yourselves), including the van they are travelling in.
When they finally reach California and Olive takes part in the contest, the family is much different from the way they had begun.
So what’s different?
You may rightly ask, what is so different about the movie. Hollywood is known to do various beautiful and meaningful films on dysfunctional families. It has some inane yet fun road-trip movies, and very recently even Robin Williams attempted a movie of almost the same genre. So what sets this movie differently, and marks it down as a must see?
Firstly, the script… its one of the best, worked upon this year. It is dark, satirical, and funny, yet in a reserved way. As one of my fellow reviewers has justly pointed out this is one of the best dark comedies since “Sideways.” Its take on human frailties and how everyday lives can be so weird and yet, the need to make some meaning out of the mess, and to hold on to values or beliefs that to you seem important, is so vivid. It is almost an objective documentary on how in a family, dysfunctional or not, each member’s potentials, growth and failure affects and is governed by everyone else. How, almost everything can be presented in a fantastic garb of subtle humour, even if the subjects were hauntingly sad.
Secondly, the delightful works of the cast, each one of them, especially Arkin and Breslin.
The Awards:
I cannot emphasise my joy, when the movie fetched the following awards. Actually, I had withheld writing a review on this film for so long, so that I could incorporate this important section.
Wins
Academy Awards *— Best Original Screenplay
Academy Awards — Best Supporting Actor- Alan Arkin
BAFTA Awards — Best Screenplay, Original - Michael Arndt
BAFTA Awards — Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Alan Arkin
2006 Screen Actors Guild Awards — Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture - Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin
Writers Guild of America Awards *— Original Screenplay - Michael Arndt
Independent Spirit Awards *— Best Feature - Marc Turtletaub, David T. Friendly, Peter Saraf, Albert Berger, Ron Yerxa
Independent Spirit Awards — Best Director - Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Independent Spirit Awards *— Best First Screenplay - Michael Arndt
Independent Spirit Awards *— Best Supporting Male - Alan Arkin
The nominations were aplenty… would not go into those, as I don’t exactly want brickbats for a lengthy review.:)
Suffice to say, this would be, one of the best pictures you can see this year. I hope you have the time to watch it actually. Take my word for it; you won’t ever regret it.
Thank you for reading my review. Would love to hear from you.
