Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

USA; 101min

Adventure, Comedy, Drama

Directors:  Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

Writer: Michael Arndt

Stars:  Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Abigail Bresli

Seven year old Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin) has only one desire, to become Miss America. When she qualify for the Little Miss Sunshine contest in California whole Hoover family goes on a trip from New Mexico to California in old Volkswagen T2 Microbus.
A family members are father, Richard (Greg Kinnear), who is a extremely bad motivational speaker who wants to become a winner but is quite the opposite, mother Sheryl (Toni Collette), who just wants a united and happy family, brother Dwayne (Paul Dano), a Nietzsche fan with a vow of silence until he becomes pilot, grandfather Edwin (Alan Arkin), who was kicked out of a nursing home because of snuffing heroin and who is also the coach of young Olive and suicidal Uncle Frank (Steve Carell), the second largest specialist for Proust, disappointed with the loss of first place and lover.

During the trip, each member gets through personal disappointment and a blow to his dreams, but that only made them more united as a family. Although Olive's dream is in the first place, each character has his own and to each is given attention in the story but almost all remained unfulfilled. Only the mother ultimately reached her goal while others realized they just have to be what they are, and that limiting yourself with social expectations and protocols sometimes makes no sense. It's a theme seen many times before, but it's blended in nice, humorous and charming story.
Most of the scenes are symbolic, and perhaps the most symbolic one is arrival at the hotel where the event takes place. While the road from motorway looked like one going towards hotel it started leading family away from it. That situation left them with a choice, to follow the road that takes the away from their goal, or to take some alternative and against the rules path.
Performance is excellent, especially for comedy for which is far above average, and Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin should be highlighted. During scenes in which he was involved, Arkin drawn all attention to himself and young Breslin showed extremely serious and mature acting with only 10 years.
While humorous dialogues are well-ordered the serious one are naive. In some scenes it's on purpose, but sometimes it just look hastily written. On the other hand, the dinner scene was extremely interesting. In that scene whole family was introduced to audience in some very  fast, but somehow naturally way. All characters are almost as caricatures, but all very interesting and memorable. 
The movie is a kind of criticism of modern American society. Nothing new, but always brings a dose of satisfaction, especially to Non-Americans. The criticism of society in film, which culminates with an interesting performance by little Olive in competition, is cliched, but nicely done and there are several very funny scenes.
It's one of the better and funnier comedies lately, with solid criticism of modern society, which will surely leave most viewers feeling pleasant after viewing it.

Sedmogodišnja Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin) ima samo jednu želju, da postane Miss Amerike. Kada se kvalificira za natjecanje Little Miss Sunshine u Kaliforniji cijelokupna obitelj Hoover krene na put sa starim Volkswagen T2 Microbusom.
Obitelj čine otac Richard (Greg Kinnear) neuspješan motivacijski govornik koji uporno želi postati pobjednik u bilo kojem smislu iako je upravo suprotno, majka Sheryl (Toni Collette) koja samo želi ujedinjenu i sretnu obitelj, brat Dwayne (Paul Dano), obožavatelj Nietzschea koji se zavjetovao na šutnju dok ne postane pilot, djed Edwin (Alan Arkin) koji je izbačen iz staračkog doma zbog šmrkanja heroina i koji je ujedno i trener male Olive, te suicidalni ujak Frank (Steve Carell), drugi najveći stručnjak za Prousta razočaran gubitkom prvog mjesta i ljubavnika.

Tijekom putovanja svaki član doživi svoje osobno razočarenje i udarac u svoje snove, što ih samo ujedini kao obitelj. Iako je Olivein san u prvom planu, svaki lik ima svoj, svakom se daje pažnja i svaki ostaje neispunjen. Jedino majka u konačnici dođe na svoje dok ostali shvate da jednostavno moraju biti to što jesu i da se nema smisla ograničavati društvenim očekivanjima i protokolima. Puno puta viđena tematika, ali lijepo, humoristično i simpatično upakirana.
Većina scena je simbolična, a možda i najsimboličnija je ona pri dolasku u hotel gdje se održava natjecanje. Silaz s autoputa koji dovede obitelj skoro pa pred sami hotel, cilj njihovog dugačkog i napornog puta, a zatim skreće u suprotan smjer i ostavlja im izbor, ili pratiti cestu koja ih odvodi od cilja ili krenuti drugačijim putem.
Izvedba je vrhunska, s obzirom na žanr gluma je daleko iznadprosječna, a Abigail Breslin i Alana Arkina treba posebno istaknuti. Arkin je tijekom scena u kojima sudjeluje doslovno svu pažnju privlačio na sebe, a mlada Breslin je pokazalo izrazito ozbiljnu i zrelu glumu sa svega 10 godina.

 Dok su humoristični dijalozi dobro razrađeni oni ozbiljniji su uglavnom naivni što je u pojedinim scenama namjerno, ali nekad jednostavno djeluje brzopleto napisano. S druge strane interesantna je izvrsna scena obiteljske većere sa samog početka filma tijekom koje nas se brzo, ali nekako prirodno, upoznaje sa svim likovima koji su dovedeni do karikaturalnosti, ali veoma interesantni i pamtljivi.
Ističe se i kritika američkog modernog društva. Ništa novo, ali uvijek ulijeva dozu satisfakcije, posebno neamerikancima. Cijeli društveno kritički opus filma, koji kulminira sa interesantnom točkom male Olive na natjecanju, je klišejiziran, ali solidno odrađen i djeluje vrlo simpatično dok se na više scena može pošteno nasmijati.
Jedna od boljih i zabavnijih komedija u zadnje vrijeme, sa solidnim kritičkim osvrtom na društvo, koje će zasigurno većinu gledatelja ostaviti u ugodnom osječaju.