By Robert Scucci
| Updated
If you’re ever having a rough week on the family front, then you might want to revisit a little film called Little Miss Sunshine to put some things into perspective. Sure, you may have recently had a rotten holiday season full of unwanted politically charged discourse, but a handful of uncomfortable conversations with distant relatives is nothing compared to what the Hoover family goes through in what I consider to be the best comedy of errors of its time.
Little Miss Sunshine is such a memorable film because of its ensemble cast consisting of Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin, and Alan Arkin, all of whom commit wholeheartedly to their character’s idiosyncrasies with such enthusiasm that I haven’t seen such chemistry replicated since its 2006 release.
Wastes No Time Introducing Each Character’s Personalities
At the center of the film is the ever-innocent Olive (Abigail Breslin), a wide-eyed 7-year-old who’s training for the titular beauty pageant under the coaching of her heroin-addicted grandfather, Edwin (Alan Arkin).
Olive’s older nihilistic brother, Dwayne (Paul Dano), hates everybody in his family, and has taken a vow of silence until he reaches his goal of becoming a fighter pilot.
The family patriarch in Little Miss Sunshine, Richard (Greg Kinnear), is an aspiring but failing motivational speaker who sees the world through the lens of winners and losers despite the fact that he’s the biggest loser in the family because he sank their entire savings into his self-help book that has yet to be published.
Joining the Hoover family on their adventure is Steve Carell’s Frank, a disgraced Proust scholar on suicide watch after a series of unfortunate events ruined both his personal and professional reputation.
Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette), the high-strung mother, is put in a difficult spot because Frank, her brother, needs to be under constant supervision which complicates the already dysfunctional dynamic thrust upon her by her family.
A Road Film With Excellent Pacing
Little Miss Sunshine has a similar structure to films like Vacation in the sense that its conflict plays out on the road as a dysfunctional family hightails from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Redondo Beach, California in a run-down Volkswagen van with mechanical issues. Shortly after Sheryl picks Frank up from the hospital after his suicide attempt, the Hoover family receives a message about Olive’s acceptance into the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, and only have a couple of days to drive 800 miles in order for her to participate.
Along the way, the Hoover family runs into every obstacle they could possibly think of, including, but not limited to transmission issues that require them to push the van 20 mph before it could properly start, Edwin’s heroin habit, Richard’s book deal going south, Olive’s shaken confidence, and Dwayne’s bleak and misanthropic worldview that he doesn’t speak aloud, bur rather scribbles into a notebook in order to communicate with Frank, who’s basically a walking, talking caricature of clinical depression.
Too Much Heart To Handle
As the family dynamic falls apart in Little Miss Sunshine, the Hoovers come to the realization that this is the only family they’ve got and they need to make do with what they have. When tensions rise, and the road trip is compromised (on numerous occasions), they need to hold it together for Olive, who is a picture-perfect representation of innocence caught in the middle of everything. Olive’s naivety and dedication to the pageant, despite the volatile circumstances surrounding her, never waver, even when every member of her support system is barely holding on by a thread.
Little Miss Sunshine wears its heart on its sleeve from start to finish, and reminds you just how important family is. Though there are plenty of instances that demonstrate how nobody in the Hoover family likes each other, their sense of love and devotion, while repeatedly shaken, remains unbroken as they try to pick up the pieces and get Olive to the pageant on time.
While you are never able to choose the family that’s assigned to you at birth, you do have control over how you react to your environment during trying times, and Little Miss Sunshine captures this dynamic in ways that will inspire you try your best, even when your familiar somethings are bringing out the worst in you.
As of this writing, you can stream Little Miss Sunshine on Hulu.
