Little Miss Sunshine

So far Little Miss Sunshine is the best comedy of this summer. Calling it a comedy is actually misleading. It was probably categorized by the studio’s marketing department rather than by the creators of this wonderful movie. I think writer Michael Arndt, directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have not made the movie to fit into any neat group and mainly intend to show us a piece of life, bittersweet one moment and hilarious next.

Little Miss Sunshine not only reinvigorates the whole road movie and family drama genres, but also mines some new fields. If we have to call it a comedy, it is a kind of comedy that is rarely made by the studios any more: it neither has gross out humor nor employs over-the-top antics; instead it completely relies on real life moments to provide the comic relief. Even during some sad moments, we could still chuckle about the silliness of life.

The movie stars a dysfunctional family: dad Richard (played by Greg Kinnear) is a struggling inspirational speaker who doesn’t tolerate losers but is somewhat of loser himself; mom Sheryl (played by Toni Collette) is clearly exhausted by the family and financial problems; older son Dwayne (from Sheryl’s previous marriage) deals with his own inner anger by stopping talking; younger daughter Olive (played by Abigail Breslin) is obsessed with beauty pageants. Rounding out the rest of the family are grandpa (played by Alan Arkin) who is a drug addict and has a potty mouth and Uncle Frank (played by Steve Carell) who is a suicidal gay scholar of Proust. With the help of Arndt’s brilliantly understated script, Dayton and Faris draw us into the intimate lives and situations of these realistic characters. The dinner scene at the beginning of the movie is a masterpiece and feels so real. I am sure every one of us would be able to identify with some of the conversations, bickering and tension at that dinner table.

Dayton and Faris show their ironic tone very early on. Teary Frank sits in a wheelchair in his hospital room while the title Little Miss Sunshine slowly rolls across the screen – where is the sunshine here? Later on, there are many ironic shots in the movie. Richard teaches his 9 Step program and encourages listeners to be a winner, but when the camera turns to his audience, only a few are scattered around the room – who is the loser in this room?

The cast is absolutely A-list. Kinnear has perfected his portrayal of an ordinary person feeling bigger than he really is. Collette has been my favorite actress ever since Muriel’s Wedding. Some critics think she is sometimes too energetic for her roles, but I just adore that spunk in her attitude. She also has real women’s looks and curves that make her just that much more authentic for any role she plays. After a sidesplitting turn in The 40 Year Old Virgin, Carell has gone completely opposite and turned in an astonishingly restrained performance. Uncle Frank could be counted as Carell’s first major dramatic part instead of a comic one. However, veteran Arkin gets all my attention whenever he pops up on screen. My big complaint with this movie is that we don’t get enough of grandpa. Breslin makes me a little queasy. She is cute as a button, a la Dakota Fanning and Haley Joel Osment, but whenever I see a child actor act so precocious for his/her age, it always make me wonder if we are robbing their childhood at the expense of our own entertainment.

The last quarter of Little Miss Sunshine diverges slightly from the family drama and delves a little bit into the whole ridiculous child beauty pageant culture in this country. It does not diminish the movie in any way. Actually the ending shows that a family who dances together stays together.