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Little Miss Sunshine Movie Review

Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 comedy film directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and starring Abigail Breslin and Steve Carell among others. It is a phenomenal movie.

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“A real loser is someone who’s so afraid

of not winning he doesn’t even try“

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A family decide to travel across the country when their daughter wants to participate in a beauty pageant, unaware of what the journey has in store for them. I’ve loved this movie ever since I first watched some ten years ago. Rewatching it now, it holds up stupendously and I still regard it among the greatest comedies of all time.

Some may call this film tragicomedy, some may call it black comedy and others perhaps may not find it to be a comedy at all, but a dramedy. Whatever the genre may be, this is a fabulous movie when all things are considered and it’s easily one of the best 21^st century comedic movies. It’s just that good.

The main reason why the film worked as well as it did lied in its amazing characters and the capable actors and actresses playing them. Let’s start with Abigail Breslin, who delivered a breakout performance as Olive Hoover. While Breslin unfortunately suffered from that Hollywood child actor curse, she will always have this deservedly Oscar-nominated work to call her own.

She killed it in each and every moment, delivering a pitch-perfect performance as this absolutely adorable girl who is after all not looking to compete and win, but to prove herself to her family and herself first and foremost. The main message of the movie is one promoting trying and having fun instead of having to win at all times. This resulted in that iconic finale where everybody danced foolishly and having such a great bonding time as a family while simultaneously mocking these beauty pageants for their obvious hypocrisies.

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Another highlight is Steve Carell in the role of the gay uncle. A past professor who lost everything and almost committed suicide, Frank got a moving arc where he had to learn to love himself again and to appreciate life above all else. Carell was so effortlessly believable here and this movie proved once and for all that he is best fitted for more dramatic instead of comedic roles.

Toni Collette is just as phenomenal as you’d expect from her. She didn’t get the most memorable or funniest role here, but she was still wonderful as this supportive mother who would do anything for her children. Greg Kinnear plays this obnoxious businessman who constantly throws these pro-winning mantras at his family, but eventually he gets to realize that winning is not everything in that aforementioned amazing finale.

Paul Dano as Dwayne was also perfectly cast. This is one of the darker characters in the story, but he worked as there are so many teenagers like him who are struggling. How he connected with his uncle was beautiful and the two shared such a wonderful conversation near the end. As for Alan Arkin, he was also nominated for his work on this movie and he deserved it. He was by far the funniest character of the bunch and his absence in the second half was definitely felt, but how they dealt with his passing was quite touching while also leading to many very amusing sequences of situational black humor.

Little Miss Sunshine made me laugh on a number of occasions, but the entire movie makes me smile as it’s that kind of heartwarming family flick where you care what happens to these characters so much that you end up rooting for their success afterward. The soundtrack is strong, the production design is excellent and that yellow minivan made for an instantly iconic movie vehicle.

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The film is also deftly edited and paced as it never overstayed its welcome. It was consistently entertaining and sweet while also benefiting from truly exceptional, realistic dialogue. It promotes strong family values as this family, no matter how different in each member, eventually comes to a mutual understanding and respect, and that is all that matters in this life.