Movie Review: Little Miss Sunshine

Paperback Writer here.

Little Miss Sunshine is not your typical road movie. It's not your typical family bonding movie. And it's not your typical little girl pagent movie. It's a little bit of all three and a whole lot more.

At the very beginning of the movie you meet the people who form the Hoover family - Olive, the seven year old obsessed with pagents; Richard, Olive's father and self help guru; Sheryl, Olive's mother; Frank, Sheryl's brother and recent suicide attemptee (my second favorite character - just because he's Steve Carell); Dwayne, Olive's half brother (and my favorite character in the movie); and the grandfather, who happens to be a recent cocaine useer.

Most of the movie takes place in the Hoover's yellow VW van on the way from Arizona to California for the Little Miss Sunshine Pagent in Redondo Beach, California. We see the family dynamics and dysfunctions on this 800 mile road trip. From Dwayne's vow of silence (He wants to fly jets and has vowed not to speak until he gets into flight school) to Frank's downward spiral as the nation's number one Proust scholar (and if you know who Proust is, then it is very funny that there would even be a number #1 Proust scholar) to his love for a male grad student to his suicide attempt to Richard's eventual unraveling book deal to the grandfather telling Dwayne to sleep with a lot of girls.

The last 15 minutes of the movie is what happens when the Hoover family finally gets to the Little Miss Sunshine pagent. You are rooting for Olive to win, but at the back of your mind you know something, something will go wrong.

And it does. :)

Go see this movie before it leave theatres.

Elisabeth wrote a better summary/review on her website, by the way.