A seven-year-old girl from a fractious family enrols in a beauty contest for children. Olive (Abigail Breslin) isn’t going to let her appearance get in the way of winning the Little Miss Sunshine competition.
Olive’s tummy is out – like the baby mouse Nibbles from the Tom & Jerry cartoons – and she has big glasses over her shining eyes. Her grandfather Edwin (Alan Arkin) says she is the “most beautiful girl in the whole world”. But Olive needs to live up to the expectations of her father Richard (Greg Kinnear), a motivational speaker who believes that the world has only two kinds of people: winners and losers.
The contest pops up in the middle of the latest domestic crisis. Olive’s mother Sheryl (Toni Collette) has a brother, Frank (Steve Carell), who is struggling. Olive’s sibling Nietzsche-worshipping Dwayne (Paul Dano) has taken a vow of silence.
Everyone piles into a beat-up Volkswagen van and sets off on a journey that is often exasperating for the travellers but hugely enjoyable for viewers.
Little Miss Sunshine is available on JioHotstar and can also be rented from Apple TV+, Prime Video, YouTube Movies and Google Play Movies. An Oscar-winning script by Michael Arndt, attentive direction by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and a mostly seasoned cast – Little Miss Sunshine is a near-perfect movie about an imperfect bunch of characters.
The 2006 production is a double dollop of dysfunctional family comedy and road trip movie, with a judicious balance of whacky and comic moments. The climax that nobody can see coming is a riot.
The terrific actors behave like an actual clan. They are hilarious in the comedy scenes as well as affecting in the quieter moments.
There’s empathy all around for Richard’s near-desperate striver, the always-harried Sheryl, the brooding Dwayne, the sensitive Frank, and even the wicked grandpop Edwin. A special place in the heart is reserved for Abigail Breslin’s Olive, a bundle of heart-tugging innocence and sunny optimism.
Also start the week with these films:
‘Life Without Principle’ looks at the highs and lows of the stock market
