This week the spotlight is turned to the Academy award winning 2006 movie: Little Miss Sunshine, written by Michael Arndt and directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton.
Little Miss Sunshine is a feel-good family movie with a gentle and heart-warming storyline at its centre. The overall tone of the screenplay remains positive from the first minute to the last, and although the characters do face conflicts, your kind of always know that things will inevitably work themselves out.
One thing about this movie worth noting, is how much time is spent in crafting each character into who they are. For a script of only 109 pages, you wouldn’t think there’d be much time to do so, but as the story goes on, we feel as though we begin to know and care for these characters.
It goes without saying that they are a unique bunch of characters. All the way from Olive to Grandpa, despite their similarities, they all still care for each other, and their goal remains the same throughout the story.
I personally believe that the main theme of this story is the idea of being who you truly are, regardless of what anyone around you may think.
The entire movie, Olive is trying to impress her controlling Father into thinking she is a winner, but all along the doesn’t care about winning – she just wants to dance. And she does.
There is actually a very nice and heart-warming scene at the end of the film that was cut from the final edit. The scene shows Richard (Olive’s Father) finally accepting her, not as a winner or a loser, but for who she is.
The line “Who wants some ice cream?”, shows Richard’s acceptance of his daughter, in contrast to his criticism of Olive ordering ice cream at the diner earlier in the film.
It’s a real shame that the scene was found on the cutting room floor because I felt it would have been a much lighter ending.
Having said that, the film still doesn’t fail on representing the theme of it being okay to show your true colours and be who you are, regardless of other people’s opinions.
The climax of the film when the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant finally takes place captures this perfectly.
The screenplay itself is just a very easy read – just as easy as the film is to watch.
There are no hidden meanings between certain events that are difficult to spot, the dialogue is very easy to follow, and the characters are likeable to the point where you are rooting for them the full film.
The comedy throughout this film isn’t laugh out loud hilarious, it is subtle, and you do have to look out for it. Steve Carell does a brilliant job of portraying Frank, the jobless homosexual that has just survived a suicide attempt.
He is funny in this film, but once again, in a subtle manor, so don’t go into this film expecting to see a crossover between Michael Scott and The 40-Year-Old Virgin.
Despite the fact that this is without a doubt a family/comedy movie, there are dramatic plot points scattered throughout the film where we see the characters face challenges that could potentially break them, and their chances of making it to the pageant.
Little Miss Sunshine is genuinely just a harmless read/watch that is destined to leave its audience satisfied that they haven’t wasted any of their time pursuing it.
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