Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

Starring: Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano

A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.

Frank is a suicidal gay man. Dwayne took a vow of silence until he achieves his dreams of becoming a fighter pilot. Grandfather Edwin is snorting heroin. Olive is obsessed with beauty pageants and wants to become a beauty queen. Richard has a Type A personality (in other words, a very difficult person to get along with). And in the middle of everything is the Mother, Sheryl, who just wants to keep the peace. Yup, this sure is a dysfunctional family.

Olive (Abigail Breslin) is the youngest member of the family, and has just been selected as a finalist in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Since they can’t afford to fly the family to California where the pageant is held, they decide to drive there in their VW Bus. Frank (Steve Carell) and Richard (Greg Kinnear) doesn’t get along. Dwayne (Paul Dano) hates everyone – everyone. Rude and foul-mouthed Edwin (Alan Arkin) constantly ends up in arguments because of his crude bahaviour. Needless to say, you can rest assured you’re in for a hell of an adventure! Especially also since the VW Bus has mechanical problems, and needs to be moving at least 20mph before they can put it into gear!

Along the way tensions will rise, and off course there’s loads of humour, fun, adventure, action and yes, even tragedy. The performances are very good (especially Alan Arkin), and there’s enough room for great character development. ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ is a delightful film that’s bound to put a smile on your face!

‘Little Miss Sunshine’ received 184 award nominations, winning 72 including the Oscars for Best Supporting Actor (Alan Arkin) and Best Original Screenplay. At the box office, it earned $101 million on an $8 million budget.

Would I watch it again? Yes.