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Little Miss Sunshine



Little Miss Sunshine (2006 - Jonathan Dayton)

Little indie dramedy about a dysfunctional family on a road trip, and while there's nothing especially new or revolutionary in the material or approach, Little Miss Sunshine is a breezy, enjoyable and even sincerely sweet movie. The family consists of the Dad (Greg Kinnear), Mom (Toni Collette), Grandpa (Alan Arkin), teenage son (Paul Dano), pre-teen daughter (Abigail Breslin) and the Collette character's brother (Steve Carell). Carell is staying with the family after a suicide attempt, Arkin has been kicked out of his retirement home for a new heroin habit, Kinnear is anxious as his nine-step personal improvement success program is just about to get off the ground and be marketed, Collette has put all of her ambitions on hold for her husband's, Dano has taken a vow of silence until he realizes his dream of gaining admission at military flight school and little Abigail is still an optomistic child who doesn't have any idea how cruel the world can be. As if sharing a house wasn't tension filled enough, they pile into an old VW van and head off to California after they get a message that the little girl has qualified for a beauty contest at the last minute.

Pretty typical road movie situations arise, but gimmick-free direction and a very good cast add a charm and subtlty to it all. Carell, who has become something of a comedy superstar the past year between The 40-Year-Old Virgin and "The Office", and he's actually very good in a more dramatic role. He plays an academic who considers himself the preiminent Proust scholar in the United States but tried suicide after he lost his university position, was upstaged professionally by a collegue and was rebuked by a male grad student he had fallen madly in love with. He plays the depression perfectly, and the comedy arises in his bemusement at the other dysfunctional pieces around him. Arkin does his Arkin thing, which I frippin' love, as the old man who sees no reasons left to fit into society, so if he's going out he's going out witha smile on his face. Paul Dano has been doing some fine work in independent films this decade, starting with the controversial L.I.E. (2001) and continuing with The Ballad of Jack & Rose (2004) and the recent release of The King (2006), and he's well cast as the silently fuming teen who hates everyone. Kinnear, who made the transition from smarmy and sarcastic cable personality to Academy Award nominated actor with As Good As It Gets (1997) has done little of worth in the decade since, and while this character doesn't add anything new to his repertoire he's well suited for the movie and it may be a reminder to casting directors that he can do more than play the one-note heavy in the unnecessary Bad News Bears re-make. Collette has been an indie queen since she burst onto the international scene with Muriel's Wedding (1994), and while her character probably is the most underwritten of the bunch, as always she inhabits her perfectly. But the real heart and soul that holds the ensemble together is Abigal Breslin as Olive. Her biggest role before this was as the daughter in M. Night's Signs (2004) and she was one of the tykes in the forgettable paint-by-numbers Garry Marshall crapfest Raising Helen (2004). Her enthusiasm and innocence in Little Miss Sunshine are infectious, and makes the finale the film builds to all the more satisfying.

It's just a good little movie, the way even most little indies rarely are anymore.

GRADE: B