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3. How did you feel about the contestants in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant? What aspirations do you think attract people to beauty pageants? Are the value judgments germane to pageants consistent in any way with what Christians are taught to value in the Bible
4. Have you ever been a part of an effort in which a group of people (family and/or friends) supported, in a tangible way, the dreams of another person in the group? If yes, what was that experience like? What sort of sacrifices and rewards were involved? If no, why not?

Little Miss Sunshine is rated R for language, some sex and drug content. A foul-mouthed grandpa, sight gags involving the covers of porn magazines, heroin usage, frank discussion of suicide, and an innocent-yet-cringe-inducing pretend "strip tease" by a 7-year-old (she still has clothes on when she's done) all put the film firmly in R territory.

Photos © Copyright Fox Searchlight

© Lisa Ann Cockrel 2006, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

The Hoover family is on the move. They're aiming their yellow Volkwagen bus across the country in order to arrive at a beauty pageant, so that 7-year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin) can pursue her dream of competing in a beauty pageant.

It's actually more complicated than it sounds. The Hoovers are having a rough time. Sheryl (Toni Collette) is offering comfort to her suicidal brother, a Proust scholar named Frank (Steve Carrell). Her husband Richard (Greg Kinnear), a motivational speaker, is at the wheel, and the heroin-addicted grandpa (Alan Arkin) is sharing the back seat with the teenaged Dwayne (Paul Dano). There's nothing like a road trip to bring a dysfunctional family together … but together for what? Harmony, or chaos?

Featuring the songs of Sufjan Stevens in the soundtrack, Little Miss Sunshine is winning the hearts of festival-goers, and now it's making its way across the country to surprise a larger audience.

Little Miss Sunshine is winning a warm round of applause and welcome from mainstream critics.

Stephen McGarvey (Crosswalk) says, "Some fairly harsh language and heartbreaking situations are spread across the film. We certainly see this family at its worst. However, such a strong negative portrayal makes their ultimate redemption all the more powerful. … Clever and comical, Little Miss Sunshine gives us the Hoover family's broken dreams in all their dysfunctional glory. Yet the film doesn't let us pity them as they learn to find happiness overcoming some of their flaws."

Hal Conklin and Denny Wayman (Cinema in Focus) write, "The caricatured dysfunction of the Hoover family gives Little Miss Sunshine a comical appearance. But when we stop laughing and consider the people, we are confronted with painful personal and spiritual emptiness. … With just the right amount of slapstick and drama, music and dialogue, shock and innocence, life and death, they take us on an emotional journey in which love of family becomes the value and life is the process by which it is uncovered. But this is a love that has no transcendent source or purpose and its anemic form within this family reveals a spiritual void."

Josh Hurst (Reveal) calls it "a movie so filled with compassion and grace that it just might be the year's most inspiring film anyway. … It's the best ensemble cast all year, and each one of them totally nails the performance. … It's a hysterically funny film. It's also touching, shocking, and full of surprises. And most importantly, it's redemptive. Loving your neighbor isn't always easy, and the film doesn't settle for easy or sentimental answers. So while it's not family-friendly—the R rating should be taken seriously—it just might be the best family comedy of the year."

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