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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.
