Film Review: Little Miss Sunshine @ Capitol 7
As the summer blockbuster season comes to a close, studios are releasing their fall lineup. Among these films is directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ Little Miss Sunshine. With a cast made up of talented unknowns and veterans of the screen, Little Miss Sunshine is a quirky comedy with the potential to become one of this year’s most loved films.
The film revolves around one family’s road trip to enter their seven-year-old daughter in a beauty pageant nearly 1,000 miles away from home in a beat-up VW bus. The trip is made interesting by the differences between the six relatives that at first drives the family apart but eventually bring them together.
Although they are each very different, the individuals create a unique family dynamic and manage to function in their own way, whether push-starting the car or transporting a body in the back of their van. The darker moments of the film are contrasted with a quirky kind of humour not often seen on the North American big screen. Witty, dark humour is blended with modern slapstick and laugh-out-loud circumstances that manage to be comical without being absurd.
Technically, the film is quite simple, but the close-ups in the van throughout the trip intensify the audience’s feeling that they are actually a part of the journey and also emphasize the tension such close quarters create.
One of the film’s weaker points is the character of the brother, Dwayne. Although his literal silence and teenage angst are at first intriguing, these characteristics become tedious and less exciting as the plot continues.
Steve Carell’s performance as the suicidal uncle, Frank, is one of the strongest elements of Little Miss Sunshine, as he steps out of his usual obnoxious, silly comic roles he played in Anchorman, The 40-Year-Old Virgin and NBC’s The Office. Carell becomes a serious, disturbed man struggling to deal with the suffering involved with being unstable. He remains humourous and entertaining without relying on slapstick humour or cheap laughs. Instead of laughing at Carell’s character, the audience finds itself laughing with him.
The dynamics of the cast, along with the unusual humour the film creates, makes Little Miss Sunshine one of the must-sees of the year. It’s a refreshing break from some of the unrealistic and monotonous action films that have ruled the screen for the past few months.
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