Review of Little Miss Sunshine (2006) by Adrian B — 06 Feb 2013

A rather dysfunctional concept finds the young daughter (Abigail Breslin) given the green light to participate in a Little Miss Sunshine fashion show in California. The leads the whole family spontaneously packing up into a weird looking van and travelling from New Mexico to the showbiz state.

This includes an unsuccessful working father (Greg Kinnear); the disgruntled mother (Toni Collette); the gay, mentally disturbed uncle (Steve Carell); the mute brother (Paul Dano), who won't speak until he becomes a fighter pilot; and the drug addicted, hippy, promiscuous grandfather (Alan Arkin).

The journey to California is no normal journey, especially due to several humongous tragic or hideous situations that occur, yet they remain upbeat, which leads to the surprising success of this movie.

It works, thanks to the cast and script, and the ending, despite not exactly would it should have been, is wonderful. Nice movie and much better than I would have imagined.