I went to see "Little Miss Sunshine" last night with a couple friends and was full of great expectations. Now, there are times when I'd like to see a movie and not really know anything about it ("Dot the I" is one of those such movies), but there are times when you can't really help it - case in point being "Snakes on a Plane". Now I had seen a preview for "Little Miss Sunshine" quite awhile ago and I knew right away that it was going to be one of those movies that I would really enjoy. So when it came out in limited release, I of course read all of the reviews and was pleasantly surprised to find that it got good reviews. Now, for the most part I don't take a lot of stock in reviews. There have been many a bad review for movies which I've absolutely loved, and a couple good reviews where I've truly thought that they were watching a different movie than me. But when a movie gets all good reviews, it's a pretty good sign that the movie is going to be at least decent.
"Little Miss Sunshine" was much more than decent. First of all, any movie with Alan Arkin as a fairly main character has to be good. Think of his character in "Edward Scissorhands" just 30 years older and a little less suburban. That being said, I can't ignore the rest of the cast either. There wasn't a weak link in the entire ensemble. Greg Kinnear did an excellent job as a failing motivational speaker who doesn't believe in failure, Toni Collette was perfect as the mother trying to hold the whole family together. Steve Carell played a depressed suicidal uncle, the foremost intellectual on Marcel Proust - no wonder he's depressed and suicidal. The brother is played by Paul Danno who has taken a vow of silence until he becomes a fighter pilot, and the little girl is played by Abigail Breslin who does an incredible job. The film mainly takes place in a beat up VW bus on a road trip from Albuquerque to southern California where the family is traveling so their little girl can compete in the Little Miss Sunshine Beauty Pageant. I suppose it would have to be classified as a fairly dark comedy, but you're definitely smiling all the way through the movie and you just feel happy at the end.
There's definitely quite a bit of cursing in it, so it's not a younger family movie, but it's not one of those that the language really takes away from the overall film. Basically it's just a nice funny movie about a semi dysfunctional family on a road trip so there daughter can compete in a beauty contest that she's obviously not going to win. The characters are great, its amazingly well written and there's enough funny moments and touching moments to just make you feel good after you've seen it.
I would definitely recommend it to anyone. I'll buy it when it comes out on DVD. 10 out of 10.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment