Film Night In The Park - Little Miss Sunshine September 21, 2007

2006 (not recommended for children)

In "Little Miss Sunshine," the extended Hoover clan piles into a rickety yellow Volkswagen van and heads from Albuquerque to a kiddie beauty pageant in Redondo Beach, so 7-year-old Olive can get a shot at a tiara. Partway there, the clutch goes out and can't be repaired in time. To start the VW, able family members must push and then make a dash for the moving vehicle.

The first shot of three generations of Hoovers -- from Olive (the beyond-adorable Abigail Breslin) and her brother (Paul Dano), to Mom (Toni Collette) and her brother, Frank (Steve Carell), to Grandpa (Alan Arkin) -- racing alongside a camper gingerly steered by Dad (Greg Kinnear) is as side-splittingly hilarious as the zaniest fix the Ricardos ever got themselves in. Remarkably, the visual gag remains fresh and funny the next time. During the setup for the family's third trot, however, you think it can't possibly work again. But it does, and from that point on you can only marvel at filmmakers Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' unerring ability to gauge just how far they -- along with the sputtering van -- can go.

Their sly, near-perfect comedy seems to come from nowhere. It's a first feature for Dayton and Faris as well as screenwriter Michael Arndt, an awesomely original voice in a profession that rewards imitation. I like to think "Little Miss Sunshine" dropped from celluloid heaven as a sign that, despite continual evidence to the contrary, movie miracles still happen.

The dysfunctional Hoover family is dysfunctional in its own way. It's a blended household (Mom is on her second marriage) with a lot of lumps. But as eccentric as everyone is, you'll be able to recognize something of yourself or your kin in them, and it's this connection that provides the movie's power.

Pipe dreaming is not an unusual practice, but Olive is her father's daughter in the extreme she takes it to. He's a motivational speaker who naively believes he can spin off his prosaic nine-step program for success into books and videos -- much as Olive, with her fresh-scrubbed looks and tiny potbelly, thinks she has a chance to beat scary JonBenet Ramsey look-alikes.

Everybody can relate to feeling jealous, although hopefully not to the extent Frank does. He's been put in his sister's care after slitting his wrists because a fellow Proust scholar, whom he considers his inferior, won a genius grant on top of stealing Frank's boyfriend. Still on suicide watch, Frank has no choice but to accompany the Hoovers to the beauty contest.

Is Grandpa loony because he snorts heroin on the road -- insisting that at his age what does it matter -- or because he regrets not sleeping with lots of women when he was young and virile, or is he expressing thoughts common to elderly people? He puts himself in charge of teaching Olive her dance moves, which -- for a reason that doesn't become clear until the talent competition -- include growling.

Truly magical moments evolve from the entire family's love for this precious little girl. It's the tie that binds them throughout a road trip from hell.

Dayton and Faris, husband-and-wife music video directors, have the good sense not to muck around with a beguiling script by imposing distracting visual effects. Showing the van's shadow on a highway barrier is about as fancy as the pair gets. "Little Miss Sunshine" is the most straightforwardly told movie since "The Straight Story."

The cast is so perfect that it's impossible to imagine anyone else in the roles. Arkin's spontaneity gives the impression that he's improvising. Kinnear embodies the hyped-up energy of a gambler sure his next card will beat the house. He and Collette effectively use body language to convey the frustrations of a couple trying to hold it together for the kids. The two have almost no physical contact. A scene where they verbally lash out at each other is particularly well acted.

Even in such heady company, Carell, whose success in "The 40 Year Old Virgin" established him as more than just a television face, comes close to making this his movie. His well-honed comic instincts are evident in the way Frank intently follows the family's disjointed conversations with his eyes -- as if watching a tennis match -- and in his quickened pace to get to the pageant registration desk when the Hoovers, delayed by one crisis after another, arrive in Redondo Beach late.

There's no more fitting final destination than California, the land of promise for generations of families seeking to improve their lot. But "Little Miss Sunshine" is really more about getting there. You'll be delighted, if a bit breathless from laughing, to be along for the ride.

By Ruth Stein

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