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THE FUNNIEST FILM SO FAR THIS YEAR!
by JimF (movies profile)
Dec 30, 2007
117
of
136 people found this review helpful
"Little Miss Sunshine" is the funniest movie I've seen in quite some time. It follows a highly disfunctional family on a road trip from Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, California to enter their seven year old in the "Little Miss Sunshine" pageant, a contest not unlike those that Jonbonet Ramsey likely participated in.
And disfunctional they sure are. Richared Hoover (Greg Kinear) is Richard Hoover, a sporadically employed motivational speaker pinning his hopes and dreams on a book deal promoting his nine-step success program; wife Sheryl (Toni Collette) is the patient breadwinner, holding her family together by a thread; cantankerous Grandpa (outrageous Alan Arkin) has been staying with them on the sofa ever since he was ejected from his retirement home for snoring heroin (!), Sheryl's brother Steve is boarding there after an unsuccessful suicide attempt after being spurned by a male student he was in love with, and subsequently losing both the object of his affection and a shot as a Proust scolar to his rival, not to mention getting axed as well; teenager Dwayne has taken a vow of silence and taken up reading Nietzsche until he can be admitted into flight scoll to escape the madness of his family, and then there's little Olive, the beauty pageant contestant.
Along the way, they encounter difficulties (their old VW van only shifts in third and fourth gears, needing a push from family members to start, then requiring them to run until they're out of breath to catch up to the moving vehicle and leap in while it is in motion). There is also much disappointment; the characters evoke much empathy and humanity.
In spite of seemingly insurmountable hardship on their trip, Richard is obsessively determined to see his daughter's dream fulfilled because, as anyone motivational speaker will tell you, quitting is for losers.
There is not one lacking performance in the entire film. The climax of the film, taking place at the pageant, particularly Olive's talent routine, is bellyachingly funny, a scene that will be remembered for the rest of your life.
It gives a well-deserved middle finger to all beauty pageants of its ilk, hitting the nail on its head.
I highly recommend "Little Miss Sunshine". |
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