Little Miss Sunshine is a little Gem
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Who is a loser? The one who tries and loses? Or the one who is so afraid of losing , that they dont even try? Or the one who takes winning and losing in the same stride, being faithful to Rudyard Kipling? The US is a country that is built around a cult of winning. Its a place where winners are feted and losers are scorned. A virtual mini industry has been created by people, promising to help you win, though end of the day, its they who end up really winning. While this win at any cost obsession, has produced some really great people, it also has a larger dark side. It has created people, who feel worthless because they are not winners. It has created a pysche, where you have to kill your own personality, just so that you could win or fit in there. Little Miss Sunshine, is a movie that takes a satiric look at this aspect, with a backdrop of children beauty paegants.
The movie is about a typical dysfunctional family out there in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Richard Hoover( Greg Kinnear), is a motivational speaker, working on something called The 9 Steps to Success, a clear dig on Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits ideology, looking to start his own business in life study. His father Edwin( Alan Arkin), has been kicked out of a retirement home, due to his cocaine addiction, and also has a nasty tongue. He however shares a close bond with his 7 year old grand daughter Olive(Abigail Breslin). Richard’s wife Sheryl( Toni Collette) on the other hand is overworked, having to run the family. Her brother Frank( Steve Carrel) is gay, and has just survived a suicide attempt, after his gay lover has left him for another guy. And her teen son from a previous marriage, Dwayne( Paul Dano), loves Nietzsche, and has taken a vow of silence till he becomes a test pilot.
Olive qualifies for the “Little Miss Sunshine” paegant, being held in California, and her parents and grandfather want her to go. With not much money to fly down, they take the road trip all way down to the venue in their old battered Volkswagen Microbus. Things however go crazy, as first the van breaks down, and they have to push it along. Richard loses an important contract that would have helped him start his business, Frank comes across his ex boy friend, and worse Grandpa Edwin dies in a motel room of drug overdose. The movie is about how the family manages re discover themselves.
At the outset, Little Miss Sunshine is not the standard Hollywood underdog, who wins in a high pitched climax kind of movie. It is more of a dark comedy that deals with dysfunctional families and the all American obsession with winning. But yet the movie does not have much of a depressing tone, except for the part when Edwin dies. Unlike some other movies which dealt with dysfunctional families, here the focus is more on the characters and not on the extra marital affairs.
The biggest strength of Little Miss Sunshine i felt was the characterization. By not exagerating them, and just showing them as normal people, at once the directors make us feel for them. The scene for example when Frank tells to Olive why he attempted suicide, is done in a plain, matter of fact way, without resorting to any unnecessary histrionics, that even though one feels a bit weird of it, you do actually end up emphathizing with him. The characters here are not black, white or grey, just normal people, and that works a lot. Also the tendency to go in for excessive preaching is avoided here.
Another thing that works is the restrained way the movie is shot. Not getting out of hand, not getting too melodramatic, but yet striking the right notes. The scene where Dwayne breaks down, after being told he is color blind, and can’t go for a test pilot. He runs away, and refuses to listen even to his mom. However Olive goes and just puts a hand around him, and he slowly comes back. Beautiful way of telling something without too much dialogue out here.
The movie also is a direct satire on the beauty contests phenomenon. The scene where both Frank and Dwayne, ask Sheryl to prevent Olive from taking part in the contest, as they dont want to see her humiliated, and then Sherly explaining that let Olive just be herself, is quite moving. Also the scenes showing the young kids dolled up, made to mouth pretty phrases, is somewhat reminiscient of the way kids in India nowadays are being presented in reality shows, of course abetted by greedy parents, wanting to make a quick buck.
Richard on the other hand is symptomatic of the average success at any cost mentality. His 9 Habits for Success, seems to be a direct dig at Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits series. For all his bluster and talk, Richard however is not able to make his own life much of a success. He is deeply in debt, his wife runs the household, and his 9 Habits cant prevent him from losing a contract. Richard’s obsession with winning puts off Frank, as he wonders how Grandpa has been able to live with him so far. It also scares his daughter Olive, who is afraid to face her Dad, as he hates losing.
However directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faries, ensure that the movie does not get too dark or depressing, by interjecting many genuinely funny moments. The best of course being the way every one pushes Richard’s car to start it, and then run along to get inside. What really lifted the movie for me was its ending, which does not degenerate into the standard Hollywood ending. No its not dark, its in fact pretty much uplifting, yet the directors do it without resorting to too much hyperbole.
The movie is also helped by some top notch ensemble performances. Barring Greg Kinnear, most of the other cast are not really big stars, but all of them solid performers. Steve Carrel, who was impressive in The 40 Year Old Virgin, is spot on as Frank, giving a performance totally restrained. Abigail Bresnell as Olive is a delight, putting in a totally natural, performance. Toni Collette, who played Haley Joel Osment’s troubled mom in The 6th Sense, is equally effective as the overworked woman, running the household. Greg Kinnear, more famous for his rom coms, puts in a great performance as the winning obsessed Richard, but the scene stealer would be Alan Arkin, as the grumpy, cocaine sniffing Grandpa. One of the best performances, he totally deserved his Best Supporting Actor Oscar.
Tags: alan arkin, Dysfunctional families, Greg Kinnear, little miss sunshine, Road Trips
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Nice one..RS..keep it coming..
Volkswagen Microbus…I used to see one of these in shambles outside my school..i wonder if its still there..its so retro..
Absolutely lovely movie.
Beautifully written RS
this is one film whose story and the directions it took never fails to amaze me.
the writers took weird turns and twists and made them feel something very normal, something one would easily do if they were in that situation.
i think the trick lies as you say in not exaggerating, i often feel if you dont draw too much attention to what you are doing, one can pass off a lot of things that otherwise might have oddly stood out.
a brilliant achievement in screenwriting.
You just refreshed my memory on one of the best films I have ever seen! Brilliant stuff.. How can I forget that hospital scene and the amazing performance at the show? What a nutter (yet cute) of a grandfather! What a totally twisted brother and what an adorable girl! Brilliantly underplayed, cleverly dark and deliciously enjoyable!!
Beautiful review for a wonderful film, thanks!
Wanted just to add a tiny thing: I think the reason why it’s not a depressing movie of a dysfunctional family is because in the end it shows them as a functional family!
They might be a bunch of misfits in various states of social malfunctioning…. but in the end when somebody really needs it, they work as a family team, especially on the emotional level. Maybe not in the conventional way, but in the way of the heart that truly matters.
one can learn more about contemporary american life and culture by watching this beautiful movie than by taking any college course.
This film was being aired last nite on TV…..The first time I saw it I was wondering how come AA got the Oscar. I didnt feel it a great role. Performance expected as hes an old hat…Movie – mixed reac, I remember this. Somehow I was wondering what the fuss @ this being super is. But the ending was kinda unexpected for me but still seemed ok for the charac….that i liked…
Paul Dano was good…Steve Carrel rightly understated. Hes I think one of the those who can be adept and comic ans serious stuff….Others good but somehow these 2 stayed on with me esp Paul Dano’s role.
undoubtedly one of the best film I’ve ever seen. The ending absolutely blew me away.Its only after watching the film you realize how the easily the film refers to some very serious issues like dysfunctional families and padophilia. This is perhaps the only year I felt Marty did not actually deserved it, it should have gone to Little Miss Sunshine.
Paul Dano’s acting as Olive’s brother Dwayne, who has taken the vow of silence to acieve his goal of becoming a test pilot deserves a mention. In a character who doesn’t speak for 90% of the film, he was really good. No. Make it damn good.
Another understated performance along with Steve Carell.
We’ll see a lot more from of this young actor in coming years. At least I hope so.
Man, the Granpa’s moves for the girl were kept real secret and was really surprised to see it. It is a great feel good movie, though it makes you cringe at times.
If you guys can get hold of the DVD, check out the alternate endings they shot. Very interesting. Also worthy of mention is the movie soundtrack – love it!!
I saw this movie quite some time ago and was intrigued by the portrayal of a dysfunctional family and I loved it.What I liked most was the underplay of emotions by its characters.Like when the granpa dies, the family doesn’t go over the top mourning him.The little kid was very adorable and played her part well.
Thanks for an excellent article on excellent film.
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Love this gem.
@ Bala-12
Yes the strength of this movie is the restraint and underplaying shown. Very natural and endearing.
@ Pratik-13
Have not seen the alternative ending one, but yeah the soundtrack is a real killer one.
@ Avik, yeah Steve Carell is really one underrated actor. He was fabulous in 40 year old Virgin. Also liked Paul Dano.
@ Manoj, honestly that last song, just threw me off, never really expected it in the end. Lovely movie for sure.
@ Rood Row, Departed was certainly not Marty’s best, but given that he was never lucky, guess that made it. LMS was a real gem of a movie, feel good without being too maudlin or mawkish. Paedophilia?? Am not sure, as far as i know it covered the gay angle and drug addiction one. It was on a dysfunctional family but again the humuor prevents it from being too dark.
@ Arthi V- Lot of things i found great about the movie, the slow, unhurried pace, the restrained approach, and best of all eschewing a typical Hollywood climax, for a more nuanced one, yet it still makes u feel great.
@ Pkg- Yeah actually though in reality a dysfunctional family, they still keep together, unlike the families in American Beauty or Ice Storm. Also the dysfunctionality here is more with the ego hassles, rather than any extra marital affairs. Sheryl and Richard dont get along, coz Sheryl feels she runs the home, while Richard feels Sheryl does not give him the support he needs. But they still keep communicating.
@ Papaji- Yes a real mirror to American society and their ethos.
its a great movie. i watched it recently and it amazed me with its humor and the happenings in the story.
some scenes i remember and really amazing:
first pushing the VW bus and then everyone run to get in the bus.
grandpa’s lessons to dwayn in the bus about sex and when olive ask what were they talking about grandpa answers ‘Politics’.
Olive’s condolence to her brother when he broked down after comfronting his color blindness.
Richard driving to hotel in a hurry when they tuned to wrong path.
And lastly, olive’s performance with family support.
its was a rocking movie totally with positive feel … loved it … Thankyou for the review