Movie Notes: Little Miss Sunshine

September 17th, 2006

Little Miss Sunshine

= 4 stars

Starring Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell
Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

Amazon Link

Finally got off our duffs and saw a current movie. Little Miss Sunshine is 1/4 sincere feel-good and 3/4 black comedy, which results in a pretty decent date flick.

At first the plot seems rather contrived as a beauty pageant seems to be a mere plot device to get this dysfunctional family on the road together. Expected speed bumps begin appearing, but things start becoming unpredictable soon after the clutch gives out. From that moment on, it’s a fun ride. Many of what I found hilarious was based on things forgotten from earlier in the film. It’s best described as running jokes that deliberately fade away until the time is right to spring the trap again.

The cast is quite top-notch for their respective roles, even Steve Carell as a glum, suicidal professor: not exactly what one would expect from his work in The Office and 40 Year Old Virgin. But he plays a good second banana to the other crazies. Greg Kinnear is a motivational speaker that doesn’t realize his positivity is positively un-motivating. Toni Colette is also stellar as the film’s solid emotional core.

A few items left me wanting, namely a confrontation between two characters that never seems to arrive, plus the ending felt all too abrupt. To want a film to continue after its end is a rare thing, yet this film does that. We want to hang out with these hopeless individuals to see if they make it home.

IMDB: Little Miss Sunshine
Wikipedia: Little Miss Sunshine
Rotten Tomatoes: Little Miss Sunshine 92%

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2 comments!

  1. comment Gravatar RC of strangeculture - September 20th, 2006

    Interesting thought on wanting to see some confrontation.

    –RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com

  2. comment Gravatar webomatica - September 20th, 2006

    RC, more specifically, I thought the Greg Kinnear and Steve Carell characters were headed for a battle of egos. It would have been funny.

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