Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is a film well-described by its title. Its playful and Amelie-esque opening accurately reflects the film to come: well-structured, and full of crazy characters. Steve Carell (The Office - US), in particular, plays a difficult role, that of a depressed man who learns to enjoy life. The stand-out acting, however, has to be from Abigail Breslin, who plays Olive, the little girl around whom the film is centred. It has always seemed unfair to me that child actors automatically get a lower billing, and this is a good example of that disparity. It is amazing to think that someone so young could get such a strong grip on acting.

The family that forms the meat of the plot of Little Miss Sunshine is just as dysfunctional as The Simpsons, and just as funny. The film is a road trip, and as such is plotted as you might imagine: various different events occur that provide the ups and downs of the emotional journey. I got drawn in - I found it hard not to get angry when they did at ’the system’ that holds them back. Despite knowing that it’d have a happy ending of a sort (films like this always do), I got nervous when they had a setback.

Little Miss Sunshine is an instant classic, just purely on acting ability alone. But it’s a fully-rounded film, and one that deserves to be enjoyed. I recommend it highly.