Little Miss Feelgood Film

Little Miss Sunshine was the runaway indie success story of 2006. A film that came out of nowhere, won the audiences' hearts, charmed the critics and bagged up prestigious recognitions by the end of the year.

The premise of the film is simplistic to a fault; a dysfunctional family takes up a road trip to the titular beauty pageant for kids. A quick rundown of the family has Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear), a motivational speaker who is reduced to lecturing the virtues of positive thinking on to his family, Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette), tightly wound up, closet smoking mum who has no other choice but to put on a brave face amongst other volatile members of the family, Edwin Hooper (Alan Arkin), the heroin sniffing, foul mouthed grandfather who can't extol the virtues of sleeping around enough to young Dwayene (Paul Dano), the Nietzsche disciple who has taken a vow of silence and is marred by natural teenage angst. Frank Ginsberg (Steve Carrell), Sheryl's gay, depressive suicidal Prosut scholar brother rounds up the clan and at the centre of it all is ofcourse the shy, beauty queen infatuated nine year old Olive (Abigail Breslin) who's invitation to compete at the Little Miss Sunshine contest provides the catalyst for the film.

Predictably so, along the way on the road, the passengers bicker, quarrel, squabble, annoy each other and gradually start to understand and respect each other leading to the whole family dancing on a stage that surmises for a feelgood conclusion.

This film is just another example of how thin the line between Studio and Independent film is getting these days. It could just as well have been a routine family affair for pleasurable family viewing and the right proportions of quirk is sprinkled over the production to remind us this is a pleasing, heartwarming film about a family sticking together yet is nonetheless, an unmistakably proponent of American Independent cinema. The selective characters are given their respective dark traits to play with, an eclectic soundtrack and the ending that wisely (and for me surprisingly) doesn't go the conventional way. An interesting cast member of the film is the yellow Volkswagon that has its own personal traits and contributes as much as the rest of the cast. It's a push-start vehicle with a not so reliable horn.

The film works best as an ensemble piece. That may be one of the finer points of the film, the interaction between the actors. They make their respective travesties believable with adequate amounts of pathos. Steve Carell has the makings of taking up the Robin Williams mantel sans the mania and Alan Arkin is missed in later scenes.

In summation if you feel that new fad that is dysfunctional family not to your taste you might want to skip this one.

(And isn't the dysfunctional family fad getting a bit tiresome?)