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Little Miss Sunshine Our rating: Your rating:   MPAA rating: R (for language, some sex and drug content) Genre: Comedy, Drama Theater release: July 26, 2006 by Fox Searchlight Directed by: Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris Runtime: 1 hour 41 minutes Cast: Steve Carell (Frank), Toni Collette (Sheryl), Greg Kinnear (Richard), Alan Arkin (Grandpa), Abigail Breslin (Olive), Paul Dano (Dwayne) Related: Talk About It/Family Corner

The Hoovers have dreams. Dad Richard imagines himself becoming the next Tony Robbins. Mom Sheryl dreams of a big happy family. Grandpa wants to go out in a blaze of glory. Uncle Frank longs to be recognized as the nation's pre-eminent Proust scholar. Brother Dwayne wants to be a fighter pilot. And then there's Olive. The pudgy, bespectacled 7-year-old wants to be Miss America.

Put all of these dreams in an old VW van and send them to Southern California for a beauty pageant, and you get Little Miss Sunshine.

This is the first feature-length project for the husband and wife directorial duo of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, both highly respected for their work in the music video world. Perhaps nicknamed the "Little Movie That Could," Little Miss Sunshine took five years to make and, thanks to its warm reception at 2006's Sundance Film Festival, is finally seeing a U.S. release—albeit in limited theaters.

Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell, and Paul Dano

As its Sundance pedigree might suggest, Little Miss Sunshine has an eccentric veneer, but don't let that fool you. The script is far more conventional than its indie pop soundtrack (DeVotchKa and Sufjan Stevens provide the highlights) would have you believe, right down to unfortunate blips on the narrative radar involving porn magazines and state troopers that could have come straight from Super Troopers and a moment of sibling bonding that's all but gift wrapped. This said, there is a zany ethos to Little Miss Sunshine that, despite its most clichéd moments, stokes a lovely poignancy in this look at family life and the capacity for hope in the face of absurdity and calamity.

Broken down family, broken down VW van

Much of the absurdity is provided by the Little Miss Sunshine contest—the attempt to get there and the pageant itself. The garish makeup and skimpy dresses on the pre-pubescent contestants is all the more jarring after spending much of the movie with the gawky Olive. Indeed, her presence at the pageant and her cringe-inducing "talent" are a sort of defacto exposé on the darkness that lies just beneath the sparkly sequins.

Each of the family members is, in one way or another, grappling with darkness in their own lives. Indeed, the script does a commendable job of presenting distinct characters—each person a universe of motivations and morals unto themselves—instead of presenting them as one griping and moaning familial mass. As such, different viewers are likely to resonate with different characters. And yet, the bond forged by their proximity to each other—by the fact they're family—is undeniable. I don't think it's a coincidence that the broken down VW van eventually requires a group effort to get in gear.

The travels are just as much part of the contest as the pageant itself

The cast is universally strong. Toni Collette doesn't seem to be physically capable of turning in a poor performance, as I have yet to see her do so since she burst onto the scene in 1994's critically acclaimed Muriel's Wedding. As a suicidal academic, Steve Carell proves his acting mettle extends far beyond his comedic turns in TV's "The Office" and last year's blockbuster The 40-Year-Old Virgin. Greg Kinnear, as Richard, uses his innate likeability to make even the most annoying of characters sympathetic. Thankfully, Richard's desperate need to be a winner is road kill on this trip. As is Grandpa. Alan Arkin's a dirty old man with a heart of gold (or at least silver).

In many ways, Little Miss Sunshine is a story about people dealing with the small deaths of their own dreams and yet still finding it within themselves to pull together to nurse Olive's dream. There are obvious missteps and flaws. Such things are always much easier to see from the outside looking in. But there is also a certain wonder in the ability of this family to hope—for themselves and for each other.

1. Why do you think Richard was so obsessed with winning? What comforts does this approach to life offer? Are there inevitable pitfalls? How did this obsession affect Olive and Dwayne
2. Olive asks her uncle, "Do you think there's a heaven?" He hems and haws, citing others on the topic. Olive persists. "But what do you think?" Talk about his response. Do you think it was truthful? Or do you think he was trying to appease Olive in some way? Do you think his work as an academic shaped his response in some way? Why do you think Olive asked the question

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