Little Miss Sunshine

From The Movie Snob

Little Miss Sunshine (A-). This movie made some news when Fox paid a ton of money for it at one of those film festivals, and I would say that Fox made a good call. By turns funny and poignant, this is the story of the very dysfunctional Hoover family. The dad (Greg Kinnear) is obsessed with getting a book deal based on his nine-step self-help program for turning losers into winners. Uncle Frank (Steve Carrell) is a homosexual Proust scholar who has just survived a suicide attempt. Grandpa (Alan Arkin) is a foul-mouthed old cuss who got kicked out of a nursing home for doing drugs, and teenaged Duane (?) stopped talking nine months ago and does nothing except read Nietschze. The versatile Toni Collette plays long-suffering wife and mother Cheryl, and then there is cute seven-year-old Olive, who is the emotional center of the family. She gets a chance to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, and the whole family piles into a dilapidated VW van for the long drive from Albuquerque to California so that Olive can have her chance. Misadventures ensue, along with moments of surprising tenderness. I liked it a lot — but do take the R rating seriously.