Dreams, goals, pursuits…we all have one. For children it’s often what they want to grow up to be, but for most adults it’s a dim light that with each passing day becomes further out of reach. Often, a major component to enabling someone to achieve their dream is their family. But you know what’s normally the number one thing holding people back from their dream? The answer is also family.
This is why I love Little Miss Sunshine so much, because whilst the film is a road trip comedy about a family coming together to help one among their group achieve their dream, it’s also about so many within that family unit having their own dreams destroyed.
Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin) wants to grow up to be a beauty pageant queen and when she finds out she has made it to the national finals of the Little Miss Sunshine pageant it seems as though her dreams are about to come true. Unfortunately, this pageant comes in the wake of her uncle Frank’s (Steve Carrell) attempted suicide following his discreditation as one of the country’s foremost scholars. Unable to leave Frank unattended, the entire Hoover family consisting of Olive, Frank, Olive’s motivational coach father Richard (Greg Kinnear), her overwhelmed mother Sheryl (Toni Collette), her voluntarily mute half-brother Dwayne (Paul Dano), and her troublemaking grandfather Edwin (Alan Arkin) must make a road trip to California in order to allow Olive to compete.
But with Richard’s extreme competitiveness, Edwin’s narcissistic outlook on life, and Dwayne’s hatred towards every member of the family, as well as a series of setbacks along the way, will Olive also lose out on her dream because everyone in her family has failed at theirs?
I make Little Miss Sunshine sound extremely depressing when in reality it strikes a pretty good balance between being a serious drama with a generally pessimistic tone and a feel-good comedy. It’s a balance that shouldn’t work, but it does and at least to me makes the film endlessly rewatchable. Every time I watch Little Miss Sunshine I’ve got a big smile on my face, not because everything works out in the cutesy sugar-coated way most feel-good films do, but because everyone learns how to become a better person in spite of not achieving their dreams.
This is why I love Little Miss Sunshine so much, because whilst the film is a road trip comedy about a family coming together to help one among their group achieve their dream, it’s also about so many within that family unit having their own dreams destroyed.
Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin) wants to grow up to be a beauty pageant queen and when she finds out she has made it to the national finals of the Little Miss Sunshine pageant it seems as though her dreams are about to come true. Unfortunately, this pageant comes in the wake of her uncle Frank’s (Steve Carrell) attempted suicide following his discreditation as one of the country’s foremost scholars. Unable to leave Frank unattended, the entire Hoover family consisting of Olive, Frank, Olive’s motivational coach father Richard (Greg Kinnear), her overwhelmed mother Sheryl (Toni Collette), her voluntarily mute half-brother Dwayne (Paul Dano), and her troublemaking grandfather Edwin (Alan Arkin) must make a road trip to California in order to allow Olive to compete.
But with Richard’s extreme competitiveness, Edwin’s narcissistic outlook on life, and Dwayne’s hatred towards every member of the family, as well as a series of setbacks along the way, will Olive also lose out on her dream because everyone in her family has failed at theirs?
I make Little Miss Sunshine sound extremely depressing when in reality it strikes a pretty good balance between being a serious drama with a generally pessimistic tone and a feel-good comedy. It’s a balance that shouldn’t work, but it does and at least to me makes the film endlessly rewatchable. Every time I watch Little Miss Sunshine I’ve got a big smile on my face, not because everything works out in the cutesy sugar-coated way most feel-good films do, but because everyone learns how to become a better person in spite of not achieving their dreams.
The performances from the entire cast are phenomenal, in particular Abigail Breslin with a performance that earned her a nomination for best supporting actress at the age of ten years old! But my personal favourite of all of the performances is from Steve Carrell. I’m used to seeing him in zany comedies, most memorably things like Anchorman and Evan/Bruce Almighty, but Little Miss Sunshine is an extremely serious dramatic performance from the comedian who is allowed moments to sprinkle that exquisite comedic talent of his in.
Toni Collette is also excellent in this film, really acing as the anchor for everyone else to gravitate to. She’s everybody’s rock and it’s clearly starting to take its toll on her as over the course of the film Collette shifts the performance from a maternal caring one into more desperation and giving up on trying to make things work out.
The road trip is totally hilarious from the word go as basically everything that can go wrong does, from mechanical problems to run-ins with law enforcement, and even a trip to the hospital. But with all this crazy humour everything is still kept grounded with some of the most incredible dialogue I have ever heard. It’s borderline nihilistic at times, but there’s just enough humour injected into it to allow sensitive topics to be brought up, discussed, and usually mocked without it ever feeling too depressing or as though it’s making fun of those subjects.
The climax of the film at the Little Miss Sunshine pageant also takes a critical look at the world of child beauty pageants, the types of people who run them, and the people who attend. It’s incredibly uncomfortable to watch but manages to turn that discomfort into joy with an excellent finale. I’ve known people to become uncomfortable enough with these scenes to want to stop watching entirely, but I promise that making it through is absolutely worth it, putting the discomfort into an entirely new context.
Little Miss Sunshine is a film that walks the razor thin line that splits tragedy and comedy with the greatest of ease. The way it flits from one to the other within a single line of dialogue is the sign of a truly outstanding screenplay and some extremely talented actors. It’s a film I would recommend everybody to watch and is by far one of my favourite comedies of all time. Proof that even if you don’t achieve your dreams you can still achieve happiness.
Toni Collette is also excellent in this film, really acing as the anchor for everyone else to gravitate to. She’s everybody’s rock and it’s clearly starting to take its toll on her as over the course of the film Collette shifts the performance from a maternal caring one into more desperation and giving up on trying to make things work out.
The road trip is totally hilarious from the word go as basically everything that can go wrong does, from mechanical problems to run-ins with law enforcement, and even a trip to the hospital. But with all this crazy humour everything is still kept grounded with some of the most incredible dialogue I have ever heard. It’s borderline nihilistic at times, but there’s just enough humour injected into it to allow sensitive topics to be brought up, discussed, and usually mocked without it ever feeling too depressing or as though it’s making fun of those subjects.
The climax of the film at the Little Miss Sunshine pageant also takes a critical look at the world of child beauty pageants, the types of people who run them, and the people who attend. It’s incredibly uncomfortable to watch but manages to turn that discomfort into joy with an excellent finale. I’ve known people to become uncomfortable enough with these scenes to want to stop watching entirely, but I promise that making it through is absolutely worth it, putting the discomfort into an entirely new context.
Little Miss Sunshine is a film that walks the razor thin line that splits tragedy and comedy with the greatest of ease. The way it flits from one to the other within a single line of dialogue is the sign of a truly outstanding screenplay and some extremely talented actors. It’s a film I would recommend everybody to watch and is by far one of my favourite comedies of all time. Proof that even if you don’t achieve your dreams you can still achieve happiness.