Little Miss Sunshine

[original post: Sept.19.2006]

The following is a review of the movie Little Miss Sunshine.

Little Miss Sunshine (4 stars)

Don't you remember those uncomfortable family dinners? Everyone's unhappy for one reason or another, no one wants to be at the table, take-out food was ushered in at the last minute between mom's refueling of the Carolla and the picking up of her dry cleaning. You and your brother just almost came to blows over something stupid and mom is a nervous wreck.. convinced she is going to lose her job any second... it could be NOW!

And as much as you try to distract yourself by thinking, one day, I'll have a family all of my own that's SANE, the reality of the situation is that you are currently stuck here, eternally chewing that take-out chow mein with a grimace, forever.

How many times have we wished for a different family? Anybody! Tim Freakin' Allen, Tool Time and all!
I don't care! Anyone! CPS! So is the story in Little Miss Sunshine, the new indie flick from Fox Searchlight. My favorite character would have to be Dwayne (Paul Dano), the emo-intellectual adolescent of the family, self-sworn into a code of silence (he says he won't speak until he is admitted into flight school for the Air Force, I think part of his reason has to do with sharing the same air as an overachieving, motivational-speaker-father staring down the barrel of divorce with his mother, an uncle on the verge of a psychotic breakdown, and a grandfather who speaks as if narrating a Penthouse article).

The film is successful in bringing light to all of those moments when you wished you were someone else, somewhere far away. There is a candid scene in a convenience store where the character of Frank (Steve Carell) accidently bumps into the lover who just left him for a man whom Frank considers less of a prize than himself. They make small talk, then the lover and the new guy jump into a convertable sportscar and drive off, laughing in the wind. Meanwhile, Frank is left standing in the convenience store, holding his slushee and porn. Oh yeah, that's just about as bad as it gets, my friend. I suppose it could have been worse, but seeing as Frank's next two days would entail a cross-country trip to California to attend a child beauty pageant, I take it back, the excavation's done and we're at the center of the earth.

What works in the film is that despite the cascade of unfortunate situations, the family searches the deep, dark corners of nothingness to find some shread of support for those of them in need. There is a scene where the father, Richard (Greg Kinnear) loses a publishing deal that would have secured his family's financial stability and instead has left them with virtually nothing. Richard is on the verge of collapse when Grandpa Edwin (Alan Arkin) pulls himself together and offers some aged words of encouragement. When the sky has fallen, it may seem trivial, but a few words of support from family can mend the sky. It will only be the equivalent of a band-aid, but it will help you feel not quite so shitty, if only for a minute or two. And lest we forget that the sky is hyped anyway.

The film also functions as a successful commentary on the commercialistic nature of American culture, where dreams become a conditioned response, life becomes a rank-in-file obstacle course with no end in sight, and true happiness is lost somewhere in-between motivational tape #6 and #7. The beauty pageant, dubbed "Little Miss Sunshine", the group's final destination and lifelong dream of seven-year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin), is portrayed not as a younger, glitzy Miss America pageant, but rather an institutionalized microcosm of commercialism where little girls are programmed to want to be thin and beautiful carbon copies of each other with smiles that look painted-on. The contestants dance around the stage in a slightly provocative adult manner which made me cringe. Something is very not right when a seven-year-old is forced to don make-up and leggings in order to feel good about herself.

What's appropriately ironic is that Olive proceeds to break the monotony of the pageant and dance as she pleases to the music she chooses (which is even more provocative than the other contestants), yet the movie audience laughs and applauds her genuineness and innocence. Kids should be kids.

During the film's entirety, I caught myself asking, At what point do dreams make us miserable and at what point do we sacrifice who we are in the name of success? Maybe those questions are best answered at the dinner table, somewhere between fried chicken and contempt.