Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
Time: 1h 41mins
Directors: Valerie Faris, Jonathan Dayton
Quick Summary: A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
From all the recent hype I had been hearing about this film, I was really disappointed when I found it to be pretty overrated.
I did like the characters in this, they were incredibly fleshed out and came across as really realistic and actual human people you could meet. Everyone had an essential part of this story and nobody felt like they were pushed into the background. As a personal take, I wasn't much of a fan of the dad within this, he just came across as a big old judgmental ass, in one scene he ends up telling his young child daughter that if she eats too much ice cream she will get fat and not everyone likes fat girls. What I liked this film for, is feeling good about yourself no matter who you are; the rest of the family jump in and explain that she can do what she likes and it shouldn't matter how her body looks. I like that within this, everything that is usually a taboo issue such as death, weight, and sexuality, is spoken about in such a lighthearted manner that is often never shown in a bad light.
This did have some sort of charm to it that kept me watching. As a whole, I wouldn't usually like this type of film. It's incredibly touching at times, showing how a family might not get on due to different personalities, but they can always lend a hand and support you no matter the situation. There is a big theme to this, "Just have fun and be yourself." Which I did like to be honest. The young girl going to compete in a pageant and quickly realises she's nothing like the other girls who are over-sexualised and trying to appear like grown women, this movie does get across that it is gross (rightfully so) and horrible to teach children this is what beauty standards are, and even worse that adults like to suppress children being children. I think that is a really good thing to get across.
Now moving on to why I found this pretty overrated. It was just very bland and not much really happened, it was just one "Issue" to the next, waiting for the mini-comedic relief before we move on.. It just felt like what should have been a short 30 min thing stretched out way too long for what it was. Granted the characters are realistic in my eyes, but the family as a whole feels too dysfunctional. There isn't enough material to understand that they do care about each other as it felt like every 10 minutes they were arguing about something. I wouldn't have guessed these guys were all actually a family, it comes across as more of a group of people who have to be all together.
Something I don't understand about this film is that it is a comedy. All of these situations should not come across as funny, and somethings I struggled to understand why certain scenes were trying to be funny. I supposed it is to keep the film lighthearted, but it felt a little bit in poor taste in my opinion. There is a really awkward scene at the end, which granted is supposed to represent not conforming and just being yourself, but it makes me uncomfortable to watch a young girl essentially perform a more adult dance mixed with childish behaviour like running across or jumping around like children actually dance. A few of the scenes in this make me cringe and feel uncomfortable, though that just might be personal preference.
I don't think this is a bad film at all. It's acted really well, all the actors give a really believable performance as all of these characters. As well I did like how it spoke about certain issues. But as a whole, I don't understand why this film is liked as much as it is. It felt pretty boring, and I wasn't satisfied by the end. I wouldn't not recommend it though, I just feel as if it's made for a specific type of audience.
5/10
"Everybody just pretend to be normal."
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