Little Miss Sunshine

This movie was fantastic. I can't say it enough. Fantastic, fantastic, fantastic.

The movie begins with a close up a the face of a little girl watching a beauty pageant. And you can see by the way she mimics the pageant winner, that THAT is what she wants. And that is what the movie is about: dreams, wishes, striving for what you want.

A middle-class family (very quickly on its way to lower-middle class) decides to make a road trip to California when their young daughter gets to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Never mind that she's chubby. Never mind that she wears huge old lady glasses. Never mind that you have no idea what she and her grandpa (played to perfection by Alan Arkin) are cooking up as her "talent."

The direction is great. Directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris deserve all the praise they get for this film. The cast is near perfect. So good, in fact, that I must call out each performance:

Greg Kinnear plays Richard, the husband and father of this family. He's a motivational speaker peddling his personal system for success into a possible book deal. Richard is an ass, and I firmly disagree with almost everything the characters spouts out, but as the movie progresses, I found myself rooting for him anyway. The reason is that Kinnear makes Richard a lovable loser. Cliche, I know, but true.

Toni Collette plays Sheryl, the wife and mom. She's great, but then again, she's great in everything. Sheryl serves KFC for dinner every night.

Alan Arkin plays Grandpa, the senior citizen of the group, just got kicked out of his nursing home for doing heroin. I loved his explanation of his life at the home: "You go to one of those places, there's four women for every guy. Can you imagine what that's like? Ho oh. I had second degree burns on my Johnson, I kid you not."

Paul Dano plays Dwayne, the 15-year-old son who "hates everyone" and has pledged a vow of silence until he becomes a pilot. He hasn't spoken in 9 months, and converses with everyone via notepad. This actor is great - without saying a word, he conveys so much. A very funny, very touching performance. I hope to see more from him.

Abigail Breslin plays Olive, the aforementioned chubby Little Miss Sunshine contestant. She is fantastic. Not obnoxious. Not grating. And, most importantly, not Dakota Fanning.

Finally, there's Steve Carell. Steve plays Frank, Sheryl's suicidal, homosexual Proust-scholar brother. This is Steve's best film performance. He is funny, subdued, and takes a really nice dramatic turn. I hope to see him in some serious films. I see Oscar potential in his acting. No shit. And in this movie, he is so serious, he is absolutely hysterical.

Go see this movie. The woman with whom I saw this had never even heard of the film, so she saw it with no idea what it was about. As soon as the credits started to roll, she said, "Well, looks like I'll have to pick that one up on DVD."

I second that.