Little Miss Sunshine is a comedy drama film directed by Johnathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The plot sees a family travel across the country to enter their daughter Olive (Abigale Breslin), in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant.
There is something special about this film as it captures the messy often quite unpleasant nature of family but shows that deep down it is a force for good. The family we meet here are atypical to the Hollywood norm, they are not incredibly wealthy, and they are dysfunctional in a way that most other ‘dysfunctional’ families you see on the big screen are. There is a hostility and a world wiriness that underpins them and this whole film.
Much can and has been said for the performances of Paul Dano and Steve Carell in this film, so I will not waste time telling you how sublime they were in their roles. No the person I want to focus on is Greg Kinnear. Kinnear plays the patriarch of the family, who starts off the film almost as an antagonist to most of the main cast but turns cheek during the film. What works so well about the character arc of Kinnear’s character is that it is understated, as we see more of him and see how he changes we question our first assumption about him and ask ourselves if we were wrong?
Finally, I enjoyed the ending of this film and the stance it took against beauty pageants. Somewhat predictably, the family realises at the end how sick and messed up the pageant world is and defy it and learn that the bond they have all formed over the course of the road trip is more important. Regardless, of predictability I liked seeing them stick it to the pageant industry, which in my humble opinion is one of the worst industries that we have left, can it be cancelled soon please!
Overall, a classic.
Pros.
Kinnear’s arc
The ending
Dano
Carell
Cons.
A little too familiar
4.5/5
Reviewed by Luke
Another Millennial Reviewer 