Little Miss Sunshine 2006
Some families excel at life and some are doing good just to show up. This movie is about one of the families in the latter category. They would love to excel at life, but through their own inabilities, and the numerouse curveballs that life throws them, they can’t seem to get ahead.
The cast is very strong with Greg Kinnear as the father who focuses on success. Steve Carell is his brother-in-law, a preeminent Proust scholar whose most recent failure was suicide after losing his job and gay lover. Alan Arkin is Kinnear’s father who has been kicked out of his retirement home for snorting heroin and, no doubt, his x-rated mouth. This movie isn’t for everyone and at times the material is very dark. Just about everyone in the movie loses whatever is most important to them at some point, and it is clear those aren’t their first losses. But they do lighten up a little with some good jokes and sarcasm along the way. It had some of the same ebb and flow of one of my favorite movies, Parenthood, but with more drama and not as much humor. The performances are first rate, and even the 10-year-old has a tough scene that she nails. There is a lot of yelling and angst, but there is also some “sweet sweetness” as the family hangs together despite itself. There are cliches and yet there is also some very original material, anchored by the strong characters and performances. So while this is an original movie perfect for someone who wants something a little different, it falls short of being great. I’ll give it a B+.
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital