Little Miss Sunshine Reviews

Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette) is trying hold this crazy family together. Her brother Frank Ginsberg (Steve Carell) is just released after his suicide attempt. Her husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a bad motivational speaker who is always talking about winning except he's a loser himself. Her son Dwayne (Paul Dano) is tired of his family, and has vow to be silent. Grandpa Hoover (Alan Arkin) was kicked out of his nursing home for misbehaving. Finally daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) is so excited about getting into the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.

The reason this movie works is that I love these characters. I love everybody except for the dad. They are just so weirdly likable. They are the essence of an underdog story. I love this family, and it's not only for the cute little girl. I even love the VW van.

A truly shocking hit. The film delivers with a bang. It's a low budget film that packs a punch. The actors are extraordinary, the emotions are real. You will cheer on little Olive till the very end. A broken family has never been funnier or more heartfelt. The corky ways of each member of the family will both cause laughter and tears. From a suicidal gay genius to a wannabe father with a self help program. Little Olive is an endearing character who will grape you my the heart and demand your respect. I would recommend this film to any Indi film lovers. It's a true diamond in the rough.

Delicious comedy about beauty with an extraordinary lillte actress. It cleverly makes fun of the world of beauty contest for children and has a superfunny ending.

Since I kept hearing good things about this flick, I thought I should check it out. Eventually, I wasn’t disappointed and I thought it was a very good movie. Indeed, it is basically a typical quirky indie drama/comedy movie but they managed to create some really touching characters instead of the usual eccentric caricatures. Indeed, it deals with a family and, basically, they are actually all losers but, and that's the genius of this movie, after a while , instead of annoying you, you can't help caring for every single one of them. My favorite was probably Alan Arkin who was portraying the foul-mouthed no-nonsense grand-father, I thought he was just hilarious and I'm happy he won the Academy Award for his performance (yeah, they do get it right sometimes...). Steve Carell was also pretty good and played here someone slightly different than what he usually does and he did a very good job as well. But eventually all the actors were pretty awesome and it made the movie really compelling to watch. To conclude, I think it did deserve to be heralded, it is a very good indie feature and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Feel-good movie that actually makes you feel good. The biggest achievement in this movie are the small-budget actors, who shine in their roles. Script mocks us very slighly about human`s nature to be better and better, even though it`s one of the last things we should be caring about.

Little Miss Sunshine contains a scene that speaks to the elusive truth that this film so hilariously points out to us again and again: we often see our destination without paying attention to the journey to get there. The scene in question? Towards the very end of an exhaustive (but laugh-filled) journey to get young Olive to the titular pageant, the family spots the hotel venue but can’t seem to navigate California’s complicated highway system to get the correct exit and arrive in time before check-in closes. What they finally decide to do is most amusing, and I will not spoil it here.

Little Miss Sunshine is a dysfunctional family road movie, but it accomplishes its goals with more heart, wit and fully-realized characters and performances than others in the genre. Dysfunctional families are a dime a dozen in novels, films and plays. But when they are done well, they are a mirror reflection of our times, values and us. I believe that such is the case with the family we are presented with here.

Fragmented yet strong, abrasive yet considerate, this is the disconnected but somehow still connected modern American family. A father whose failures as a self-help guru infects and sows the seeds of body-image and self-esteem issues in his young daughter is chastised and blocked out by the heroin-snorting, cranky grandfather who for all his faults loves his granddaughter. This scene occurs during the earliest part of the road trip in the film and is a small fragment, a brief example of a fantastically well-acted and well-written ensemble of actors giving life to a sharp, smart and emotionally rich script.

I remember during the 2006 Oscar season that Eddie Murphy was the frontrunner for the Best Supporting Actor race. I found his performance in Dreamgirls to be a warmed over James Brown impression from his stint on SNL. But Alan Arkin, bitter and loving in equal doses and exercising acerbic comedic muscles with razor-sharp timing, to be the only logical choice for the award and I prayed for an upset. He won, and every so often the underdog, in hindsight, looks like the better choice. Abigail Breslin, who is slowly growing up into an actress of tremendous warmth and likeability, was justifiably nominated for her performance here. The only real injustice is that Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell and Paul Dano, able to bring down the house with just a twist of his neck, didn’t even get a breath in during the season. (Only a SAG Best Ensemble win amongst the main awards in the season.)

I find Little Miss Sunshine to still be utterly charming, and able to walk that fine line between uproarious comedic moments and painfully real moments. It remains for me, possibly, the best little-movie-that-could of the past decade.

A dysfunctional family travels hundreds of miles on their bus, just to enter the daughter in a beauty pageant.

When talking about dysfunctional families, you can't get much better than this one. Little Miss Sunshine is a perfect blend of dark humor, emotion, and sentimental moments. It mixes both the positive and the negative emotions throughout each character, showing what each individual is going through, and at the same time making it very believable, as if it's real.

While on their road trip, they stumble upon plenty of obstacles, which quickly make you realize that the family is for real, dedicated, and aren't going to let anything get in the way of them moving on-ward. Steve Carell plays a suicidal gay man who was just released from the insane asylum. Probably one of, if not his best performance he has ever shown. He can be great playing any character, I'm telling you! Meanwhile there is the son who will not speak due to his belief, the over-the-top/rather dirty grandfather (Allan Arkin), the mother, father, and of course the beauty pageant daughter. The characters together couldn't have been better. The chemistry was perfect, and really made the movie for me.

The message shown in this film is very inspiring, and really makes you think. In fact, there are multiple messages displayed. What I got out of it, is to pursue your dreams no matter what they may be, and don't let anyone or anything get in your way. Very powerful stuff, and shown perfectly on screen. The other message is a very deep one as well, showing that family isn't to take for granite, and that they are extremely important, no matter what you may go through. I nearly cried while viewing this film, due to how powerful and moving it is. Very inspiring to me.

Little Miss Sunshine is not a movie to be missed, and will make your day, leaving you feeling like you just viewed something very special.

9.3/10

By viewing the title and the poster of this film it seemed like a girly film but when you watch the film it isn't one whatsoever. Little Miss Sunshine is a very clever, original, dramatic and hilarious film with a very powerful message. Little Miss Sunshine teaches us all a lesson and that lesson is that we should always love our family not hate it. What I love the most about Little Miss Sunshine is that all six members of the Hoover family have different personalities and set on a trip all miserable but when a twist occurs they all bond together to form a proper family and all have a change of heart. It is the ultimate determination for the family that bonded them so well. Also, they all finally understood each other. There is a lot of comedy involved with sarcastic jokes and dark comedy. This is a really fun adventure that is deeply experiencing and pleasurable. This film has one of the best ensemble casts ever. All of the performances are just amazing and don't disappoint.


Greg Kinnear was awesome as Richard Hoover. Richard is a Type A personality striving to build a career as a motivational speaker and life coach. He is very strict and is very awkward and difficult towards his daughter Olive and also Dwayne and particularly his brother-in-law Frank. Despite that attitude he has with most of the family, he is rather funny. Toni Collette's performance as Sheryl Hoover was even better than Greg's. Toni brought a lot of power and realistic force to Sheryl's personality. Sheryl is an overworked mother of two children Dwayne and Olive. She argues with her husband Richard quite a lot even though she isn't the one who causes them in the first place. She is just an ordinary mother who just wants what is best for her family. Steve Carell was good as Frank Ginsberg. Frank is a messed-up middle aged man who is a homosexual and is a scholar of French author Proust. He is temporarily living with his family after attempting to commit suicide. Steve was really good but an actor like Robin Williams would have been better. Paul Dano was amazing as Dwayne. He is the son of Sheryl and stepson of Richard. Dano is only 11 years younger than Toni Collette who plays his mother in the film. Dwayne is a Nietzsche-reading teenager who has taken a vow of silence until he can accomplish his dream of becoming a test pilot. Richard's foul-mouthed father is a man who recently got evicted out of a retirement home for snorting heroin. He also temporarily lives with the family having nowhere else to go. He is very close to his seven-year-old granddaughter Olive. Alan Arkin was really good as Edwin. He is very rude and funny but very lovely towards Olive especially by teaching her to dance for the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Abigail Breslin's performance is a tie for best child star performance alongside Haley Joel Osment in The Sixth Sense. She was just so cute for the character. On that one scene where she was really crying I thought to myself "Awww bless her". She was an amazing choice for Olive Hoover.


Husband and wife Jonathan Dayton and Valarie Faris directed this film really well with that heartwarming and inspiring feeling to it. It teaches a lot about family and what it really means. The script was an amazing debut from Michael Arndt after earning the Oscar win. The script truly is one of my favourite scripts ever. It is perfect! It's funny, emotional and really clever.


Little Miss Sunshine is my favourite adventure film, my favourite road film and my favourite film of 2006. Little Miss Sunshine truly has one of the best ensemble cast. After Pulp Fiction and The Lord Of The Rings: The Return Of The King this film has one of the best scripts of all time. I think everybody would love this film. It's a masterpiece with a big twist and a powerful and thoughtful message.

A suicidal gay uncle, an unspoken emo brother who dreams of flying jet fighters, a motivational-speaking dad who always seems to be out of touch, a seven year old out of shape, pangeant-contesting "super-freak", and a heroin-addicted grandpa with the power to spout out Oscar-worthy expletives, all capped off by a mom who tends to serve popsicles for dessert.
Everything you need to provide a big yellow vehicle such as this with a solid push.