Cinema: Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Felix and I went to see Little Miss Sunshine (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris) last night. It’s a dysfunctional-family drama with a plot centred on the youngest daughter’s dream to win the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California. This is a great script that has been waiting to be filmed for five years. Then it was bought at Sundance for $10.5 million.
As in many other family dramas, this family’s members each have their own special quirks. The dad Richard (Greg Kinnear) is an unsuccessful motivational “Be a winner!” speaker. His father (Alan Arkin) is a drug addicted, potty mouthed pervert. Toni Collette plays Richard’s wife Sheryl - she is the one trying to hold the family together. They have two children: Dwayne (from Sheryl’s previous marriage), 15, is a Nietzche obsessive and in the middle of a vow of silence in objection to his mother’s refusal to give him permission to join the Air Force or something, and the other, Olive is an 8-year old whose every waking moment is spent dreaming of winning beauty pageants. Finally, there is Frank (Steve Carell), Sheryl’s brother, whose recent suicide attempt has led to him being “cared for” by her colourful family.
The film did a great job of balancing humour (it’s been a while since I’ve laughed so hard) and heart. Viewers experience a large spectrum of emotions, all legitimate and portrayed naturally and (relatively) realistically. It’s a great road-trip film combined with stories of individual and group coming-of-age. (Incidentally, the road-trip vehicle, a VW bus, is a brilliant metaphor for the family: only the 3rd and 4th gear work, it needs to be push-started, and it makes a lot of noise… in other words, it’s functioning, but barely!) Each character was given enough depth to be interesting on their own and, more importantly, within the context of the family.
This family, not unlike many others, has many issues to confront; after going on this literal and figurative journey with them, however, the fact that they love each other deeply is very obvious. Each member seems to move from being quite disconnected from each other to very naturally and almost accidentally fitting into their “roles” in the family. They begin to protect, and become emotional vulnerable, and show each other respect.
Excellent performances abound, with all actors demonstrating an ability to shine and also to know when to move to the background. I didn’t feel that anything shown was unnecessary or gratuitous. Set pieces were extremely effective and some of them were downright brilliant. And you don’t get a “happily ever after” ending, either. I’d say that you get a “they’re on their way to being happy” kind of ending. There is a definite message here, and it’s interesting to see it be both similar and different to some of Richard’s nine steps to “Be a Winner!”. Directors/married couple Dayton and Faris have successfully moved from a slew of music videos into feature films. I will certainly be looking forward to whatever they do next.
