Little Miss Sunshine
Review by Loc

Little Miss Sunshine takes two indie flick staples and mashes them together: dysfunctional families and coming-of-age road trips. Here, we have a struggling family with Greg Kinnear and Toni Collette as the parents, Steve Carrell as the troubled brother/brother-in-law, Alan Arkin as the dirty ol’ grandpa, and a couple kids. They hop in their beat-up, yellow VW van and head off to sunny southern California to bring the youngest child to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. What ensues over the next 72 hours is hijinks and hilarity: unexpected run-ins with the law, hospital visits, scooter rides, book agents, pageant difficulties, color-blindness. And each of these little episodes provides new challenges, more jokes, and opportunities for grandpa to spout off un-PC, randy comments about life and hardships.

What would an indie flick be without a burgeoning Hollywood star slumming it in a performance where they get to stretch their acting chops? Here, Steve Carrell gets to lay the manic, lovable loser to the side and serve a genuine performance of human struggle. A depressed, suicidal scholar, Carrell gets the opportunity to show off a more rounded character than his usual caricatures. And in a weird way, he pulls off something that so many comedic superstars continually fail at: being a real human being. Plus he pulls it off in an ensemble setting, never upstaging his peers in his attempt to prove he’s more than a bumbling boss or a 40 year old virgin.

Greg Kinnear is very good in his role as lovable loser, a guy trying to sell his own 9 step self-help program. Early on he’s an overbearing ass, but that gives way to lovable loser guy soon enough. He’s a family man trying to make something of his life, so the overbearing ass doesn’t really fit the bill quite right. Toni Collette, she of The Sixth Sense, is good as usual. You wouldn’t know it, but she’s actually an English actor, so you know she’s doing a good job when she’s fully believable as a good-hearted, struggling mom.

The scene stealer is Alan Arkin. Playing the rough, gruff grandpa doesn’t describe it well enough. He’s a lewd, abrasive old man, but not in an annoying or distracting way. He’s the old guy who speaks without any type of internal filter, which makes it a riot to listen to everything that comes out of his mouth. When your grandpa is an enjoyable porn fiend and drug addict, it must be really good writing or a really good performance. Probably a little of both in this case.

I won’t spoil the plot, it’s a movie that’s better to just experience without knowing too much. I walked in knowing that Steve Carrell was in some random movie and that he ran around a little. And that made experiencing this family’s journey that much more enjoyable. I will say that there’s enough random stuff going on to keep you busy and engaged in the flick. The finale is a bit contrived and awkward, as my buddy would say, but it’s still entertaining nonetheless.

Overall, Little Miss Sunshine fits nicely into the “good indie flick” category. It’s an offbeat story about offbeat, dysfunctional people, but it’s never pretentious or so self-involved that you roll your eyes. Full of laughs, these characters are more than cardboard cut-outs, and the situations that arise are full of humor. Out of 400 miles of road to travel, Little Miss Sunshine manages 320 miles. It’s a fun movie to check out.