Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine was a strange/weird but good movie. Its the perfect dysfunctional family. The mother, Sheryl is a busy woman who is just trying to keep the family from going crazy. Sheryl's brother, Frank is an expert in Proust but tried to kill himself after his homosexual partner left him. Sheryl's husband Richard is in a dead end job trying to sell his sell help book but is going nowhere with it. Next is Dwayne who doesn't speak because he has taking a vow of silence to become a test pilot. Edwin is Richards father who was in a home but was kicked out for heroine. Last is the star of the movie, Olive. She is seven years old and has a dream to win the Little Miss Sunshine contest. Edwin and Olive are close so they spent a lot of time together. Edwin even teaches Olive to dance. Even though the family lives in Albuquerque they decide to give Olive her dream and take her to the contest in California. Knowing that they cant leave any of these people alone, Sheryl gets everyone together and packs them into a Volkswagen van and off to California they go. The van is a p.o.s and has troubles the whole way. Its main flaw is that to get it to start it takes all the people pushing it until Richard can pop it into gear and start it, but once its started the whole family has a run a jump into the movie van. The trip to California is a riot. One of my favorite parts is when Dwayne finds out you have to be able to see colors to be a pilot and he is color blind and he absolutely freaks out. He swears up a storm and is just an angry person. Paul Dano did a very good job acting that out. Another good part is when they have a dead body in the van and the process they have with that. They finally make it to the contest but the lady wont register them because they are late and says if will be to much work but a guy next to her says its not a big deal and he can enter her in. Once Olive gets registered and walks back you can see she is nothing like the other contestants. Olive is heavier then the others and just doesn't quite fit in. Dwayne and Frank try to talk her out of it because they think it will embarrass her and scar her when shes older. Being good parents thought, Richard and Sheryl come in and tell Olive to do whatever she wants. Olive continues the contest and when it comes time for the dance portion she remembers all the Edwin has taught her and busts out to dance to Super Freak. Her dance is outrageous and contains a stripper move or two. Once she is onstage and doing it the whole family jumps up with her and just have have a blast. Needless to say Olive didnt win the contest and was banned from all contests after that, the family has a blast and good bonding time. The movie an instant classic in my mind. Its got an offbeat humor to it that I think all people can enjoy. Overall a great movie.