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Little Miss Sunshine
Little Miss Sunshine is … interesting. It’s a story about a pretty dysfunctional family consisting of a motivational speaker who’s almost lost all the families money, the son, who’s taken a vow of silence, a grandfather who’s a drug addict with a penchant for swearing, a plump young girl who wants to be a beauty queen, the mother who tries to keep it all together, and Steve Carell as the suicidal uncle, a surprisingly depressing role for the comedian.
The overriding plot is the road trip to get Olive to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. There are a number of subplots and character development, which normally would lead to boredom. However, in this case, the amount of dysfunction is incredibly amusing and keeps the film … interesting.
At the end of the film you do find yourself wondering what form of mind altering hallucinogenic drugs the creators of pre-teen beauty pageants were on when they thought that would be a good idea. As if kids aren’t under enough pressure, let’s let the depressed, pill-popping stay-at-home mothers force all their desires for winning onto their kids before they hit puberty. That’s not going to screw them up for life.
Dodginess
While not dodgy in the traditional sense, Little Miss Sunshine still gets a 4 on the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Scale, mainly for highlighting the therapy inducing trauma that is pre-teen beauty pageanting. If it was a documentary on pre-teen pageants, it would have scored a 5. Every time a new scene occurs, the dodginess quotient is a little higher than the previous one, ranging from a teenager who’s taken a vow of silence, through to a cop getting bribed with skin mags, however, nothing can quite prepare you for the grand finale. The strip-tease as talent in the beauty pageant really comes from nowhere and has got to be the moment that truly begs the question “Why is the rum gone?” as well as winning the not-so-coveted dodgiest moment title.
Rewatchability Rating
Watching Little Miss Sunshine makes you realise just how normal your family really is, and that alone should make it worth watching more than once. However, the film requires a little bit too much concentration to watch as often as a film like Dodgeball, but it is pretty close, and manages to score a 4 on the rewatchability index.
Most Memorable Quote
Little Miss Sunshine is not big on nice quotable soundbites, but does have quite a lot of dialogue that qualifies. One of the best interchanges occurs between Frank (Steve Carell) and Richard (Greg Kinnear).
Richard: “Sarcasm is the refuge of losers.”
Frank: [sarcastically] “Really?”
Richard: “Sarcasm is losers trying to bring winners down to their level.”
Frank: [sarcastically] “Thank you for opening my eyes to what a loser I am!”
There are a number of similar moments in the film, but you’ll have to watch it to appreciate them all.
Final Thoughts
Little Miss Sunshine has all the elements of what I would traditionally find boring, no explosions, no gunfights and lots of character development, and yet the writers have managed to walk that fine line between being so absurd that you lose interest and not being absurd enough to keep your interest. Just as you feel you are about to regret spending any more time, something else happens that hooks your attention. It’s a great film, and everyone should watch it at least once.