Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Directors:

Jonathan Dayton
Valerie Faris

Writer (WGA):

Michael Arndt (written by)

Release Date:

18 August 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Adventure | Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

Where's Olive?

Plot:

A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.

Plot Keywords:

Pageant | Proust | Loser | Beauty Pageant | Drugs

Awards:

Won 2 Oscars. Another 41 wins & 48 nominations

Cast

Abigail Breslin	...	Olive Hoover
Greg Kinnear	...	Richard Hoover
Paul Dano	...	Dwayne
Alan Arkin	...	Grandpa Edwin Hoover
Toni Collette	...	Sheryl Hoover
Steve Carell	...	Frank Ginsberg
Marc Turtletaub	...	Doctor #1
Jill Talley	...	Cindy
Brenda Canela	...	Diner Waitress
Julio Oscar Mechoso	...	Mechanic
Chuck Loring	...	Convenience Store Proprietor
Justin Shilton	...	Josh
Gordon Thomson	...	Larry Sugarman
Steven Christopher Parker	...	Teen Boy #1
Bryan Cranston	...	Stan Grossman

Also Known As:

Pequeña Miss Sunshine (Argentina) (Colombia) (Mexico) (Spain) (Venezuela) [es]
Little Miss Sunshine (Canada: French title) (France) [fr]
A család kicsi kincse (Hungary) [hu]
Küçük gün isigim (Turkey: Turkish title) [tr]
Little Miss Sunshine (Greece) [el]
Malá Miss Sunshine (Slovakia) [sk]
Malá Miss Sunshine (Czech Republic) [cs]
Mala mis sansajn (Serbia) [sr]
Mala miss (Poland) [pl]
Mala miss Amerike (Croatia) [hr]
Pequena Miss Sunshine (Brazil) (festival title) [pt]
Uma Família à Beira de um Ataque de Nervos (Portugal) [pt]

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some sex and drug content.

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | SDDS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

UK:15 | Ireland:15A | Australia:M | Switzerland:10 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:10 (canton of Geneva) | USA:R (certificate #42333) | Finland:K-11 | Singapore:NC-16 | Netherlands:12 | Italy:T | Argentina:13 | Hong Kong:IIB | Germany:6 | Sweden:7 | New Zealand:R13 | Portugal:M/12 | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | South Korea:15 | Malaysia:U (DVD) | Brazil:14 | Philippines:R-13 | Japan:PG-12 | Chile:TE | Norway:10 (TV rating) | Iceland:L

Filming Locations:

Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

Company:

Fox Searchlight Pictures

Trivia:

The license plate of Frank's academic and romantic rival, Larry Sugarman (the #2 Proust scholar), reads "lost time", a reference to Marcel Proust's principal novel À la recherche du temps perdu or In Search of Lost Time.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): In the first scene in the van, Olive isn't wearing her glasses. Although a viewer could easily say she took them off so her headphone wouldn't make them dig into her head, this was actually a mistake that the directors didn't notice for a very long time.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Richard: There are two kinds of people in this world, winners and losers.

Movie Connections:

References "Sesame Street" (1969)

Soundtrack:

You've Got Me Dancing

A highly enjoyable ensemble road movie - funny stuff

I saw Little Miss Sunshine a week ago at the Sydney Film Festival, and the audience I saw it with loved it. There was a lot of laughter going on - especially at the hilarious ending. And amidst the jokes it deals smartly with it's theme of the value of chasing your dreams and being one of life's 'winners' versus valuing what you already have. Or put another way, it celebrates the joys of losing in a culture obsessed with winning.

I'm not going to go into detail about the plot, as the film hasn't been widely released yet. There are no huge plots twists, but I think you'll have more fun with this film if you don't know exactly where it's going.

As the film started I wasn't so sure about it. All the characters (apart from Toni Colette's perhaps) seemed to be written as being amusingly quirky in a predictable indie-comedy way. But as the movie went on it became easier to warm to them. I think it helped that the actors appeared to be having genuine fun together. These guys don't feel like much of a family at first, and I wondered a couple of times why these people would bother sticking together, but as things progress the strengths of this particular family unit become obvious. And just as all comedies should, it gets funnier as it goes on. I was pleased to see the script stayed true to it's messages all the way to the end, and didn't turn preachy or maudlin. The whole cast work excellently together, and I hope this film has all the success it deserves once it's released.