The Hoover family are just your average dysfunctional family, there’s Mum of two Sheryl (Toni Collette) who not only finds herself looking after her two children but also her Father in law and Brother. Her husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a failing motivational speaker and is set on making his daughter follow his strict rules concerning winners and losers, his Father Edwin (Alan Arkin) is a foul mouthed OAP who’s recently been kicked out of a retirement home for snorting cocaine. Sheryl’s emotionally troubled Brother Frank (Steve Carrel) has recently come back from a failed suicide attempt and is not allowed to be left alone, therefore goes to stay with his sister and their family. Then there’s the two kids who are just as troubled as everybody else; firstly there’s 15 year Dwayne (Paul Dano) who has taken a vow of silence for the past 9 months, he’s dead set on becoming a jet pilot and is determined not to let his dysfunctional family stand in his way. Finally there’s 7 year old Olive (Abigail Breslin) an adorable little girl who is always upbeat, she is obsessed with the Miss America beauty pageants therefore when an opportunity arises for her to enter the beauty pageant entitled Little Miss Sunshine she jumps at the chance.

Amazingly, Olive gets an entry into the pageant by default, she is ecstatic but the pageant is 800 miles away in California and with limited money flying is not an option, the family are going to have to drive. Sheryl can’t drive a manual car meaning that Richard will reluctantly have to drive. As Frank and Dwayne can’t be left alone they are forced to come along too, Dwayne agrees on the premise that Sheryl will allow him to go to pilot school when they return. So with their baggage packed, the family of 6 hop into their downtrodden V.W van and set off for California… who knows what they’ll get up to along the way…

After hearing so much hype and praise concerning this film it still did nothing to steer me into watching it, there have been so many Oscar nominated films over the years that are supposedly excellent yet turn out to be absolute tripe. I’m also not a huge fan of Indie films therefore Little Miss Sunshine spelt disaster right from the offset for me and it was one that I was avoiding like the plague. Then after hearing the plot of the movie two thoughts crossed my mind; my first thought was how on Earth can such a simply premise make for an Oscar nominated film, these days to garner an Oscar nomination you tend to need on of two things; an array of CGI effects that will keep the audience glued to their seats, or the pride of Britain herself, Kate Winslet giving yet another heartrending performance that will outshine the best of them. With Little Miss Sunshine having neither of these I was intrigued at how this movie would play out therefore when I noticed it showing on Film4 recently I pessimistically decided to watch it, merely to see what all the fuss was about.

There are some films that I can make my mind up about before even seeing them and Little Miss Sunshine was one of them, in my mind I was expecting it to be slow, boring and an utterly lacklustre dark comedy that would inevitably fail to strike any sort of cord with me as is prevalent with most other dark comedies. However around 10 minutes in I began to slightly change my mind about this film, it had captured me from the offset with the introduction to Steve Carrel’s character who we discover has recently tried to kill himself after an unrequited love of a colleague.

When the film begins the audience is subjected to an introduction to each of the characters, each one relatable in their own way, everybody will have undoubtedly come across a family like this one, their stereotypical ways make them relatable to anyone. Fortunately however the stereotypes don’t go too overboard as we find out snippets of information concerning each character as the film progresses therefore although we have an introduction near the beginning, it’s brief and it leaves the audience wanting to know more about each individual character.

This film is primarily a road movie, there have been so many over the years both good and bad. It seems that this genre has a lot of hit and miss surrounding it therefore it’s a big achievement that two unknown directors with a tiny budget of $8,000,000 managed to pull off one of the most appraised movies of 2006. Little Miss Sunshine is 2006’s answer to Juno, an independent film with a small budget that somehow manages to make it’s way into the hearts of everyone who watches it. What I love about this film is how realistic it is, the directors don’t try to paint over the cracks, these are the same struggles that most working class families will face and the directors manage to portray this in a way that isn’t patronising or preaching to it’s audience. I like all the representations in the movie and I think this is one of the most simplest yet clever movies I’ve seen in a while, the road trip is representative of the emotional journey that the characters go on and by the time they reach their destination we see a change in all of them.

There is no character who I can say I liked more than the others; Toni Collette is someone who has shown numerous times how fantastic an actress she is, with exceptional performances like About A Boy and In Her Shoes under her belt I was half expecting her to steal the show. In a way Toni Collette is underused in the film, each character has their own struggle to deal with throughout the movie, Sheryl’s is being the overworked Mum however her character doesn’t grow much during the course of the film. In a way I think that this is extremely clever on the part of the directors, her character is the most mundane and doesn’t necessarily have to change, she merely has to be there for everybody else and is really the backbone of the family that holds them all together.

Greg Kinnear is superb, the only thing that I had seen him in previously was an episode of Friends where he plays Benjamin Hobart, ex-boyfriend of Ross’s girlfriend Charlie. This meant that I had no idea of what his performance was going to entail, his character comes across as very cold at the start of the film with the way he puts his daughter down. Richard goes on one of the biggest journey’s throughout the film and it was excellent to watch him gradually mature and understand how much his family means to him as the film progressed. His Father, played by Alan Arkin was also fantastic, at first he comes across as this one dimensional sex starved old man, that is until we witness the loving relationship that he has with his Granddaughter which is extremely touching to see. He has some of the funniest lines in the film and was a brilliant addition into an already shining cast.

Steve Carrel really impressed me with his performance in this film and after his brief taciturnity his character really comes to life and it turns out that despite his recent troubles he’s actually one of the most sane characters in the bunch. Steve Carrel played his role with a real vulnerability around him and became a very genuine and much loved character throughout the course of the film. Although I previously said that no, one character steals the show in my eyes I believe that the two standout performances come from the youngest actors in the group; Paul Dano playing Dwayne, the angst ridden teenager who desperately wants everybody to leave him alone and thinks that his family are holding him back from his dream of becoming a jet pilot. From his silence at the start of the movie he provides a lot of the comedy with his note taking in order to communicate with everybody but it’s also obvious that we’re going to find out a lot more about his character as the film progresses and luckily Paul Dano delivers. Last but certainly not least there’s Abigail Breslin as the adorable Olive, she’s warm, funny, cute and for the moment unaffected by her families eccentric nature. You really feel for Olive immediately because it’s obvious that she’s not the sort of girl that would enter in a beauty pageant because of her big glasses and slightly tubbiness however Olive gets across the most important message in the film which is you can be whoever you want to be. Abigail Breslin was absolutely superb and it’s clear that she’s got a very bright future ahead of her.

Little Miss Sunshine never fails to deliver on laughs, both with observational, wry comedy and poignant, thought provoking drama this film is a success on all accounts. I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this film at all and the sheer fact that it changed my mind is an achievement in itself but I never thought I’d be writing a review of this film and giving it 5 stars. It’s simply superb and I can’t fault it one bit. Highly recommended.

The DVD is available from play.com for £3.99.

The special features include:
Audio commentary with directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and writer Michael Arndt
Four alternate endings with optional commentary from Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris