| LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE |
 2006 - USADirectors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
- Reviewed by Vickie
Set up like your standard-issue road movie, where a pile of dissimilar characters embark on a mishap-laden journey and gradually learn to overcome their differences, the Sundance-lauded LMS provides a refreshingly light touch that elevates it above craptacular fare like Are We There Yet? and R.V. Opting to ground itself in realism and focus on minutiae, the story has a fantastically slow build, where one little moment/problem/incident is carefully layered upon another until absurdity prevails in a wonderful way. The central figures in this tale are all members of the same family. There’s increasingly exasperated mother Cheryl (Toni Collette); her motivational-speaker husband, Richard (Greg Kinnear); her Proust-scholar brother, Frank (Steve Carell), who’s just been released from a psychiatric ward after a botched suicide attempt; her kids—moody, mute introvert Dwayne (Paul Dano), who’s taken a vow of silence, and eternal optimist Olive (Abigail Breslin), who’s entry into a kiddie pageant provides the impetus for the family trip; and Richard’s heroin-snorting father (Alan Arkin), who’s been kicked out of his retirement community for bad behavior. Not surprisingly, dysfunction runs rampant in this clan, and once they all pile into an old VW van to trek from Albequerque to Redondo Beach, CA, it’s not without a great deal of reluctance, friction and hostility. Speed bumps, if you will, on their road to familial harmony. To reveal all the obstacles they must overcome would be to spoil the fun of the film, since much of the action is so sublimely subtle that it’s better to let you experience it on its own. Again, it’s all about the little things. The details. The silent understandings and barely there moments between people that speak volumes. But suffice it to say that everything, from a routine pit-stop at a gas station to the backstage shenanigans at an ultimately über-creepy pageant, gradually builds and builds to a totally satisfying and even strangely heartwarming crescendo. Much of the success of the film can be credited to its gifted cast of performers, all of whom turn in great work. Especially strong are Collette, Carell and Dano, who all offer glimpses into previously untapped aspects of their talent. Who’da thunk that 40-Year-Old Virgin star Carell could be quietly moving? Or that Aussie Collette could pull off New Mexico white-trashiness? Or that young Dano, who hinted at his skill in the otherwise dismal The King, could yank such a strong character out of what’s almost a dialogue-free role? So, when you head to the cinema this summer only to tire of pirates or talking cars or superheroes, and you find yourself yearning for something a smidge more off-the-beaten-track, skip the ticket to the Event Film and treat yourself to this cool little number instead. |
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Sometimes, amid the din of the big, fat summer-movie blockbusters,
their promotional tie-ins and the subsequent media barrage of PR, a
great little movie quietly slips onto screens unnoticed. Little Miss
Sunshine is just such a film.
