September 2006
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Little Miss Sunshine (15)
Posted 8th September 2006

“It's not about winning or losing, it's the taking part that matters.” Or so the saying goes. It's also an apt way to describe the misadventures of the dysfunctional Hoover family in the unconventional road trip movie Little Miss Sunshine .

The plot hinges on Olive (Abigail Breslin - Signs ), the youngest member of the Hoover family, and her bid to be named Little Miss Sunshine. Accepted into the pre-pubescent beauty pageant by default, she coaxes the whole family along for the ride. Cooped up together in a half broken-down VW bus for a 700mile road trip, their discontent with each other and the world at large comes to the boil.

For this is no ordinary family, quirky doesn't even come close. There's dad Richard (Greg Kinnear – The Matador ), a failing, self-help guru who's desperate to land a publishing contract for his “Refuse to Lose” nine-step program; older brother Dwayne (Paul Dano – The Girl Next Door ), a Nietzsche-obsessive, on a vow of silence until he gets accepted into the Air Force; uncle Frank (Steve Carell – The 40 Year Old Virgin ), a suicidal, world-famous Proust scholar; Grandpa (Alan Arkin – Firewall ), a drug-taking, sex-mad, old folks home evictee; and mum Sheryl (Toni Collette – About A Boy ) who's just desperately trying to hold her family together.

It's a wacky family to rival even The Addams' , an endearing and off-beat collection of losers that you can't help falling for. It's also one of the finest ensemble casts of recent memory, each and every actor flawless in their performance: Breslin plays it cute without ever becoming annoying; Kinnear is uptight, self-important and infuriating in equal measure; Dano instils Dwayne with a real sense of teenage growing pains; whilst Collette completely inhabits her put-upon mom, continuing her impeccable run of form.

But even amongst such “perfect” performances there are stand-outs that deserve particular mention. One of those is Alan Arkin, clearly having a field day as the Grandpa with a proclivity for swearing, narcotics and pornography, who has long since cared what others think of him. The other is Carell, a man who has built a career on showy performances, but here shows restraint and a deadpan side to him we haven't seen before. Hopefully, it's something we'll see much more of in the future.

Special mention must also go to first-time screenwriter Michael Arndt and first-time feature film directors (after cutting their teeth in commercials and music videos) Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Arndt's witty and insightful script strikes the perfect balance between blackly comic humour and moments that genuinely move you, whilst the husband and wife team of Dayton and Faris' show a deft sense of direction so normally missing from breakout music video helmers.

Little Miss Sunshine was the talk of this year's Sundance Film Festival, mainly because it was bought for $10.5 million in a bidding war for distribution rights. And for once such hype was not overblown. So sign up for this quirky road trip with the Hoovers , and let them take you on a journey that will warm your heart.

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