Little Miss Sunshine

by Ari

Sentimental dramas are common for an undeniable reason: Mainstream audiences love touching stories that convey sweet, innocent, and affirming emotion. It’s usually extremely irritating when you feel a movie desperately trying to manipulate your emotions, but occasionally, it can amuse and entertain between its dramatic stretches. Little Miss Sunshine treads dangerously close to intolerable sentiment with its narrative leaps and unrealistic, sometimes ludicrous scenarios, but its strong cast and sporadically well-written comedy keep it relatively engaging and on few instances, quite hilarious. This is an entertaining film, even if you can predict just about every single obvious dramatic arc developing. Little Miss Sunshine absolutely crumbles in retrospect or further analysis, but it would be unfair to completely dismiss what maintained a pleasing state during the experience.

The excellent opening montage introduces the six characters that make up the dysfunctional family we spend the next 101 minutes enjoying and enduring. Richard (Greg Kinnear) is unsuccessfully trying to sell his nine-step self-motivation program to the masses. His father (Alan Arkin) is living with him while abusing drugs and his wife, Sheryl (Toni Collette) is doing her best to stabilize the family while attending to her suicidal brother, Frank (Steve Carrell). Richard and Sheryl’s son Dwayne (Paul Dano) has taken a vow of silence as he reads philosophy and trains for the air-force, and their daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin) prepares for the finals of a beauty pageant she dreams of winning. The opening montage effectively introduces each character, immediately engrossing you in the lives of these men, women, and children. It’s subtle and well-crafted, a sign of intelligent filmmaking. The family has a very amusing dinner in which every important detail is revealed about each character, and while some generic arcs begin their cycle, the obviousness doesn’t ruin the fun of it all. The reason this movie works is because of the very talented cast. Once the excellent opening sequences conclude, it becomes clear that an amateurish and formulaic screenplay filled with quirks and oddball comedic surprises is presenting the usual character developments. The filmmakers unfortunately show no restraint with these common arcs, and it’s a testament to the performances that you don’t completely give up on the many imbecilic moments that occur.

The family goes on a trip from their home in Albuquerque to Redondo Beach, where Olive can compete in the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. A family adventure with a plethora of bizarre circumstances and emotional understanding ensues. As you can probably guess, this little journey brings everyone closer together, overcoming personal difficulties and insecurities, learning valuable lessons, and experiencing wild situations that will never be forgotten. As previously stated, it’s the usual feel-good sentiment, meant to warm your soul and inspire a few laughs and maybe a cry. Writer Michael Arndt really piles on the quirks and oddities, turning many comedic beats into ridiculous, sometimes confounding moments. Kinnear’s character is obsessed with the idea of winning, influencing his daughter in excessive and intimidating ways. Predicting where this material winds up is too easy. It’s not necessarily horrible, but just all too familiar. Steve Carrell is sour about falling in love with the wrong person, and somehow, in a convenience store in the middle of nowhere, he bumps into him. Sequences such as this are too easy, too predictable, and too much. What the filmmakers do with Paul Dano and Alan Arkin is pushing it beyond reason. Their characters are subjected to an artificiality that removes any trace of honest emotional resonance. Disappointing, since the actors are giving the best performances they can with the material.

Young Abigail Breslin is particularly sweet as Olive. Her innocence is what keeps the journey worthwhile, and watching talented actors like Steve Carrell, Toni Collette, and Alan Arkin respond to her sweetness is where the film finds confident and honest drama. Carrell is excellent as the depressed intellectual, the source of the film’s major laughs. The finale at the pageant is hilarious - well worth the price of admission on its own. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris certainly have skill, and with a better screenplay, I wouldn’t be surprised if they accomplish something great. Little Miss Sunshine is a flawed, but promising start. I can’t fault the movie for having a heart, but I do wish it was more thoughtfully and realistically developed, a drama that fully delivered on the interesting family dynamic initially introduced.

It’s a bumpy ride, but not without its merits.