The feature debut of the husband and wife directing team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris features one of the most eccentric (and dysfunctional) families to ever dare embark on a road trip together. Seven-year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin) is thrilled to discover that she qualifies as a participant in the “Little Miss Sunshine” beauty contest, prompting her mother (Toni Collette), her father (Greg Kinnear), her gay suicidal uncle (Steve Carell), her melancholy stepbrother (Paul Dano) and her mischievous, heroin-addicted grandfather (Alan Arkin) to pile into their broken-down van and make the 800-mile journey from Albuquerque, NM to Redondo Beach, CA, a disaster-filled odyssey that makes each family member realize that they, well, kind of all need each other. Alan Arkin won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance, though even he is upstaged by the true star of the show: the clan’s yellow Volkswagen T2 Microbus that really has no business going eight feet, much less 800 miles. Michael Arndt, who had to quit his job as Matthew Broderick‘s assistant to write the script, also received an Academy Award for his original screenplay. – IFC Staff
Little Miss Sunshine
