Beauty pageants have always had a certain off-putting vibe to them since they're really just a popularity contest that puts women on display. Sure, a "talent" segment is thrown in to appease the "meat market" critics, but let's not kid ourselves. It's all about parading around women in "evening gowns" and increasingly revealing swimsuits. It gets even creepier when little girls are thrown into the mix and try to act and look like grown-ups, not for the entertainment of other kids, but for adults.
Moreover, what's probably the most disheartening aspect are some of the parents who fall into that latter category. They're the stage moms and/or dads who often push their little charges much further than the kid's original dream, and will do most anything to get their child entered into such pageants and make sure they win.
Of course, that usually doesn't require a several-day long road trip in an old VW bus that needs to be pushed to jumpstart it, and the theft and then transport of a dead body. Or a father trying to market his motivational program, a gay and suicidal Proust scholar, a sullen teen who only speaks via writing on a pad, and a lascivious heroin-snorting grandfather.
All are begrudgingly present and along for the ride to make sure an average 7-year-old girl gets her shot to enter and win the title pageant in the black comedy "Little Miss Sunshine." A combination of a parody of beauty pageants (think "Drop Dead Gorgeous") and family road trip flicks (most notably "National Lampoon's Vacation" from which this film liberally borrows and then modifies its gags), this little film was the darling of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and one can easily see why.
It's quirky, features name performers doing the art house thing, and is more humane and real -- within the confines of the black comedy structure -- than most mainstream Hollywood flicks in terms of dealing with human emotions and various relationships. Working from a script by Michael Arndt, former music video directors (and spouses) Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris have concocted a fairly amusing offering. It might feel a bit forced at first, but it then picks up steam as it proceeds, concluding with an ending that will either have viewers rolling out of their seats in fits of laughter or shifting uncomfortably in the same during the "talent" portion of the contest.
Of course, either reaction might run rampant throughout the entire film as that's the nature of black comedies -- either you get and are in on the joke, or you find that some, most or all of the material is questionable, offensive or just in bad taste. I found it somewhere in between, but did like the fact that the filmmakers put some heart beneath the comedy rather than have everything be in your face and over the top.
Although most road trip movies contain the basic plot thrust of people overcoming personal, interpersonal and external complications to reach their destination and/or goal, this one reminded me a bit too much of "Vacation." Rather than the Griswolds driving west from Chicago trying to get to the WallyWorld amusement park and dealing with various setbacks along the way, we have the Hoovers who travel from Albuquerque also to California to get to the titular pageant before registration closes. Granted, the 1983 film was much lighter in tone and scope. Similarities nevertheless abound, including the transport of a relative who complicates matters by dying along the way, as well as the obligatory vehicle issues.
But while the initial characterizations here also seem exaggerated and almost cartoonish in construct (how many films can you name that possess suicidal Proust scholars, a mute Nietzsche-reading teen and a porn-loving septuagenarian who's been kicked out of his retirement home for drug abuse), there's a surprising amount of humanity and depth to them, all of which makes the black comedy approach go down easier.
Accordingly, the writing is surprisingly good and sometimes rather fresh, while the performances are what really make the film shine. Steve Carell is the standout of the bunch playing the reserved savant who still seems to have a slight touch of ironic humor about him despite his recent attempt to take his own life. Paul Dano is also rather good as the sullen teen (and must mostly act without saying anything), but while Alan Arkin gets the quiet, supportive moments with his granddaughter played by Abigail Breslin, the rest of his character feels the most artificial and forced of the bunch.
That includes Greg Kinnear believably playing one of those self-help motivators who's so wrapped up in his message and attempts to get it heard that he doesn't see his own shortcomings, while Toni Collette is the mostly grounded linchpin who tries to keep the family together before and during their journey.
And it's that latter element that eventually leads to the spoofing of the child pageant industry. Similarly grounded in humaneness, its over the top finale is designed to mock both such events as well as the father figure's "success or nothing" mindset that's driven his family crazy over the past days and several hundred miles.
Not perfect, but an often amusing and sometimes slightly touching look at dysfunctional families, "Little Miss Sunshine" might not be the prettiest or most graceful black comedy in the competition for your dollars, but its talent is readily apparent. The film rates as a 6 out of 10.
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