Little Miss Sunshine

4 out of 7

Little Miss Sunshine could be a commentary on modern notions of beauty and how it impacts the youth of our culture. It could be a commentary on the dependence every individual must maintain on his/her community (i.e. family) and how this inescapability, when truly pondered, isn’t bad. It could just be a funny film with a quirky plot and one of today’s funniest comedians (Steve Carell). Sadly, the film falls somewhere in the middle of all those wonderful stories and suffers for it.

Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin) is crowned winner of a regional beauty contest for seven-year-olds (after its initial winner is found to have been taking diet pills) and is all-the-sudden thrust into a frenzied weekend trip to California with her parents, her Nietzsche-loving brother, her heroine-addicted grandfather and her gay, suicidal uncle. After a fury of debate in the first 20 minutes, it is decided that for Olive to have her chance at beauty pageant fame, the whole family must pile into an old VW van and travel 16 hours to the national contest. What follows is completely unbelievable (as is to be expected in a good road trip comedy) and completely philosophical/meaningful (as is to be expected in a good drama). The specifics and a chronological recap of the events only serve to vex me, so I won’t do it. Only those who desire to feel perplexed as to what they’re supposed to be feeling should watch this film.

My friend, Greg, argues that this film is “anti-Disney” in its approach to success and I suppose I’m inclined to agree with him. However, the film doesn’t so much say that winning is bad, but more says that what we call winning may be inappropriate and, within this paradigm, “losing” is good. Of course, there is also a hint of post-modern irreverence as the film might also just be encouraging the viewer to seek and do what makes them happy and move forward regardless of communal critique. Those seeking drama could look elsewhere. Those wanting Carell’s humor should turn to “The Office.” Those wanting to think, though, for awhile and then end feeling frustrated should certainly bump this one up in their Netflix queue.