Little Miss Sunshine - A Trip Down Memory Lane...

After not having watched this film for about 10 years, re watching it made me realize why I loved it so much when I was around Olives age. The heartwarming story of beauty pageants for young girls (mainly uncomfortable to watch, reminds me a lot of Frank’s Little Beauties episode of Always Sunny in Philadelphia) being the main story line as we would consider being incredibly odd. With topics of drug addiction, depression and bankruptcy, Little Miss Sunshine is one of the most heartening films I have watched in a long time.

As the film opens we are introduced to the main characters Sheryl portrayed by Toni Collette, her husband Richard (Greg Kinnear), Uncle Frank (Steve Carell), 15 year old Dwayne (Paul Dano), Grandpa Edwin (Alan Arkin) and of course 7 year old aspiring Little Miss Sunshine Olive (Abigail Breslin). Each introduction to each character shows a little bit about each of them which then all ties into the story for example, Frank is staring out a hospital window as we discover he is being discharged and going to stay with his sister’s family. As with Grandpa Edwin we see he unzips his bumbag and he takes out what seems to be a wallet and takes out a tube of white powder as he then goes to sniff a white line of cocaine.

The family is all sat at the dinner table which then comes their first conversation as a family. Olive unknowingly asks what happend to Uncle Frank’s arms as he replies that he had an “accident”. The family then allow Frank to tell Olive that he tried to take his own life one of the reasons being the man that he loved didn’t love him back, it didn’t seem to phase her so much but she continues to tell him that it was silly.

Olive aspires to be Miss America one day then she receives a call stating she can part take in the Little Miss Sunshine Beauty Pageant. The family all agree to go to 700 miles to California which then leads us on to our adventure of knowing more about each character and the highs and lows of Little Miss Sunshine.

Regarding character development, it is done so well I can’t begin to describe. Richard the father or Dwayne and Olive and husband to Sheryl is involved in a pyramid scheme trying to get people on board with what he is selling. He only cares about winning and succeeding and seems the type to only care about money. Towards the end of the film I ended up loving his character. The whole way through the film he becomes more of a human and a father and not a money grabbing ‘robot’ that only cares about his job. The same goes for Dwayne who vowed not to speak and only write things on paper (which is what I did because of this film when I was about 8 as well, it didn’t last very long though, I’m a chatter box). He wanted to be a pilot when he was older when finding out on the way to the competition that he is colour blind then meaning he can’t fly planes. Richard pulls over the van and Dwayne runs out screaming and shouting breaking his vow, telling his family that he hates them. This scene brought a tear to my eye, this has to be one of the most heartbreaking scenes I’ve ever watched. Watching this scene is really touched me. You could really feel his heartbreak only to applaud Paul Dano’s acting.

The colour grading has a sort of warm tone to the screen. The iconic yellow van really pops with the warm tone. When Frank was in the hospital at the start there was a cooler tone used, this type of grading normally used to subliminally make you feel something about the environment. Blues, greens and cooler tones make you feel cold and uncomfortable depending on the intention of the director. Whereas warmer tones then of course make you feel relaxed and at ease.

Little Miss Sunshine has to be one of the loveliest feel good films I have seen in a long while and I urge anyone who hasn’t watched this masterpiece to watch is as soon as possible.

The Pink Soap Review Rating - 9/10