little miss sunshine

Though only 10 years old, Abigail Breslin (who played Olive in the film) wowed viewers around the world with her charm, seriousness, and almost-like-a-veteran-in-the-business approach to her role.

In Little Miss Sunshine, Olive is the youngest in a dysfunctional family from New Mexico. Upon learning that she qualified for the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant to be held in California in two days, the young girl wasted no time in practicing her beauty queen moves and preparing a dance number (thru the help of her grandpa) for the contest's talent portion. Thinking that there's no way they've got to leave anyone behind, Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear), who's a flop as a motivational speaker, decided to pack all their bags and go on a two-day road trip to California with all the members of his family.

Joining Richard and Olive inside the family volkswagen are Sheryl (Toni Collette), Olive's overworked mother; Dwayne (Paul Dano), Sheryl's son from a previous marriage, who's a Nietzsche follower and who has decided to refrain from speaking until he enters the Air Force Academy; Frank (Steve Carell), Sheryl's gay brother and a renowned Proust scholar who she has recently picked up from a hospital after a suicide attempt; and Edwin (Alan Arkin), Richard's father who lives with them after being evicted from a retirement home due to heroin abuse.

The film takes us on a wild journey of family misfortune, including career setbacks (Richard's nine-step technique failure), bleak future (Dwayne's finding out during the trip that he is color blind, therefore he couldn't be a pilot), love pitfall (Frank's losing an ex-lover to a rival Proust scholar), and even death (Richard's death in his sleep while stopping at a hotel room so the family could rest).

There are many moving scenes in the story. These are my top three:

1. The hotel room scene wherein Olive was shedding a tear in front of his grandpa as the latter assures her that he's certain she's not a loser and that she's beautiful inside and out.
2. The stop-in-the-middle-of-nowhere scene wherein Dwayne walked out of the car to release his angst and giving in to Olive after everyone else failed to have him return to the car.
3. The dance scene wherein the remaining members of the family joined Olive on stage in support of her striptease-type performance.

Little Miss Sunshine is a story of faith, hope, determination, and picking yourself up after every fall. Olive is actually the thread that binds everyone together. The film is of a dramedy genre, making you laugh, and at the same time weep a little, from start to finish.

Nominations
• Academy Awards — Best Picture
• Academy Awards — Best Supporting Actor- Alan Arkin
• Academy Awards — Best Supporting Actress- Abigail Breslin
• Academy Awards — Best Original Screenplay