Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

The word of mouth movie of 2006. It seemed everyone who saw it fell in love with it. They'd say "have you seen it yet??" "you need to see this film i saw last night" and such to that affect. So after hearing so much praise for it, i decided, "hell, now i need to see it".

It follows the story of Olive who is shortlisted for Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest. At first it appears her family can't take her because of the money it would cost to make a trip to where the place is being held. oh and the family, well heres a set of characters. There's Olive's dad Richard, who is a motivational speaker. His wife Sheryl, and her brother who was commited to hospital after trying to take his own life, Frank. The reason is later revealed that he was a teacher who fell in love with a male student who later broke it off with him and he couldn't take it. Olive's brother Dwayne who takes a vow of silence untill he gets his pilot licence and then thers drug adicted grampa. the family decided to travel to the place in a now trademark of the movie, yellow VW bus.

First off i have to praise Steve Carel as Frank, wow. he plays this conflicted, confused character to perfection. The character point of his sexuality was never over played and played with a harsh realism. It makes it almost impossible to think that he was once brick the weather guy in anchorman, this performance is utterly convincing and heartfelt. Along with Carell my second fave performance was from Paul Dano as Dwayne. Though a majority of the film he plays silent, the moment he brakes this silence (for a reason i won't reveal because best if you go in fresh) is IMO the finest scene in the movie and i was hooked to the screen, brilliantly done. Also seeing the different dynamics play play out on screen is great, watching different hybolic characters act a scene together is great.

On negative side, it does take some strange twists. one scene (and you'll notice it straight away) it takes this unneeded and out of place turn into a broad almost slapstick comedy. It works in context of family sticking together, but suddenly feels like a caper/ slapstick which is huge contrast to the previously subtle comedy. Another issue that other people have brought up that it kind of goes easy on the subject matter. though it touches on the issue it never goes any deeper and kind of scares off. The subject is that of media influence and the importance of todays society has put on appearance and looks. It sort of deals with it but in the end bows out to what is a rather tame finish.

all in all, a heartfelt film, that though great, maybe isn't quite what people say it is. it takes a turn for worse with one or two scenes, but little miss sunshine makes for a damn good watch and one of better movies of 2006.