|
|
 |
|
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE |
 |
A joyful independent film
shows Hollywood how
By CHUCK McFADDEN
of TheColumnists.com
Moviegoers, take heart. In an age of moviemaking preoccupied with explosions instead of literacy, star salaries the size of the Bolivian national budget and discussions of who really has had a boob job, Hollywood can still come up with a wonderful, quirky little movie.
“Little Miss Sunshine” asks the
question, “Can four stumblebum losers, a harried housewife
and a seven-year-old girl find happiness and fulfill their dreams
all together on the road in a Volkswagen bus?”
Of course they can. All it takes is a little positive thinking.
Doesn’t it? Just a little good old American get-up-and-go.
Right.
Greg Kinnear plays Richard Hoover, a would-be motivational guru pushing his nine-step technique on how to become a winner. (Even though he isn't one himself.) Paul Dano is his son, Dwayne, who has vowed to remain mute until he receives an appointment to the Air Force Academy so he can become a test pilot. Alan Arkin is Richard’s father, a senior citizen just evicted from a retirement home for snorting heroin. Little Olive (Abigail Breslin) has her heart set on winning a beauty contest. Toni Collette is Sheryl Hoover, the harassed wife of Greg and mother of Olive and Dwayne. Steve Carell is her brother, a gay Proust scholar who has just attempted suicide over a failed love affair with a graduate student.
What’s not to like?
Not only did Hollywood prove that it still knows how to make terrific movies with “Sunshine,” it proved, again, that there is an audience out there for wit and humanity. In addition to four Academy Award nominations, this little independent film with the oddball script is headed toward $90 million in earnings around the world. And its makers are quick to remind one that “Little Miss Sunshine” has already won 22 fairly major awards. Well, “fairly major” if you count the Iowa Film Critics Award to Abigail Breslin for best supporting actress. It’s up for four Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, Best Supporting Actress (Breslin) and Best Supporting Actor (the veteran Alan Arkin.)
“Best Original Screenplay” means that the movie industry didn’t grab someone else’s idea and turn it into a movie. No, “Little Miss Sunshine” started out as a movie script, amazingly enough. It came from Michael Arndt, a first-time feature length scriptwriter, and it was directed by the husband-and-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, also doing their first feature-length film. Maybe that’s why it is so good. Or maybe it’s because the movie comes to us from Fox Searchlight, which is also home to “The History Boys” “The Last King of Scotland” “Thank You for Smoking” “Notes on a Scandal” and “Fast Food Nation.” Those are all films that make us want to go to the movies again.
“Little Miss Sunshine” is a road movie, sort of. It tells the tale of a dysfunctional family in their temperamental Volkswagen bus hurrying from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Redondo Beach, California so that the seven-year old daughter can participate in a beauty pageant for children.
The bus does make it to California. On the way, there are oddball moments, terrific dialogue, pathos and a broken clutch. Beyond that, we must not go out of fairness to those who have not seen the movie. But this is not a Disney production.
The movie is a gem. It has been described, accurately, as a dark comedy, but it has its laugh-out-loud moments. Its reflection on the human condition is unsparing but kindly.
Everyone, from the six main actors to those in the supporting roles, gets it exactly right. There is not a false note in the performances or the script. You start out wondering why you’re even watching this ensemble of neurotic losers. By the time the movie ends, you’re in their corner. It’s hilarious, heartbreaking, cynical, crude and wonderful.
“Little Miss Sunshine” already is out on DVD. If you haven’t seen it, grab it. You’ll love it.
©2007 by Charles M. McFadden. The McFadden caricature is ©2001 by Jim Hummel. The movie poster is courtesy of Fox Searchlight. This column first posted Feb. 19, 2007.
You can comment
on this column online. Please address your message to either
"The Editors" or Chuck McFadden. To send an email,
click here and don't forget to mention Chuck's name: talkback@thecolumnists.com
|
|
|
Archives |
|
|