Little Miss Sunshine (2006)reviewed by Benn "Where's the Humanity?" Farrell
"Little Miss Sunshine" is about a dysfunctional family, which includes an unpopular motivational speaker dad (Greg Kinnear - As Good As It Gets), a hypertensive house mom (Toni Colette - In Her Shoes), a suicidal scholar uncle (Steve Carell - 40-Year-Old Virgin), a son who's taken a vow of silence (Paul Dano), a grandfather who's favorite sport is snorting heroin (Alan Arkin - Indian Summer), all of whom are determined to get their young daughter (Abigail Breslin) to the finals of the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant and take a cross-country trip together in their busted VW bus. Everyone's performance in this picture was dead on. Breslin was adorable and had a great moment with Arkin which had my mouth open, impressed. Kinnear and Colette were awesome across from each other. The film is peppered with very, very strong scene, compliments of writer Michael Arndt, but the ending goes for laughs instead of substance. It became the very definition of anti-climactic. The ending is far from being as strong as the rest of the movie. The comedy of the film is not laugh out loud, even though I did on a couple of occasions. It's mostly amusing situational stuff with a handful of amusing characters with amusing things to say. To say the least, it's very amusing. Overall, I thought the movie was a little disappointing, given how good it could have ended and chose not to. I'd wait to DVD on this one and when it gets there, you should enjoy it. Benn - Where's the Humanity?
If it weren't for the ending, I'd say this picture is almost perfect.