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Little Miss Sunshine

Little darlin’
Review by Vives Anunciacion

Directed by Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Starring Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell. Abigail Breslin
99 minutes/ R13
Fox Searchlight
Exclusive at Ayala Cinemas
*** ½ (3 ½ stars)

I found this movie uproariously engaging for many reasons, but mainly because there on the screen was an exaggerated version of my own crazy family. In the movie, the Hoovers are a nutty bunch of unfulfilled losers on the brink of disintegration. Little Miss Sunshine is an irreverent road trip of dysfunction as a family struggles to keep itself intact despite the seemingly unending series of misfortunes that comes in its way.

Daddy Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a failed motivational speaker who can’t motivate his own self to get a real job. Alan Arkin delivers the most memorable and hilarious lines as the foul-mouthed, heroin-addicted Grandpa. In contrast, the talented Ms. Toni Collette is underutilized as a former divorcee and Richard’s new wife Sheryl. Funnyman Steve Carell (The 40-Year Old Virgin) plays
Sheryl’s suicidal gay brother Frank. Playing the nihilistic teenager who has decided not to talk is Paul Dano.

Last but not the least is little chubby Olive, whose dream of joining the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant forces the bankrupt family to take a 700-mile road trip from New Mexico to California. Seven year-old Abigail Breslin plays the Hoovers’ ultra-cute bunso Olive with natural charm and innocence and rays of light in her eyes.

Along the way, the family deals with road mishaps and relationship bumps, but it’s at the beauty contest when the message takes a literal turn. It appears that there are far more freakier families than their own.


Sunshine’s best assets are its zippy quotable dialogue, catchy music and the excellent ensemble cast. Kudos to Arkin, who deserves a nomination somewhere, and Kinnear who may be the only actor who can warmly smile at the audience after playing the asshole the entire trip.

Sunshine is an enjoyable commentary at how we unconscionably put premium on winning, even if the winning makes the winners look like losers. Unlike her entire family who can’t get into proper terms with their own freakiness, Olive embraces her inner superfreak to show her family what winning truly means.

In the end it’s not about the winning or the losing, it’s the getting there that counts – even if the getting there means riding the bus with the only family that can take you there, no matter how crazy they can get.

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