Little Miss Sunshine...

Oh this movie is one of the most enjoyable movies I have ever seen, right from the name of the little girl 'Olive' to her older brother's antics of taking a vow of silence and using a scribble pad.
The story is about the Hoover family taking a cross country trip in their VW bus to fulfill the deepest desire of 7 year old Olive to participate in a beauty pageant. Olive, a small girl with a big heart, big dreams and big spectacles, under the tutelage of her beloved grandpa wants to win the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. The family with its internal wrangling needs to pull through and deliver for this girl.

The cast really makes this movie work. All the central characters of the Hoover family do an awesome job on the acting front. And Olive is the best, her smiles bright enough to light up the whole sky. Olive’s gay uncle Frank (played by Steve Carell from the sitcom ‘Office’ where he plays an annoying boss) is another character that stands out in the movie. Frank is a recovering from a suicide attempt of slitting his wrists after falling in love with one of his grad students who didn’t love him back. Olive’s reaction to that is ‘That’s silly.”
Very good comebacks and slick dialogues delivered very appropriately by the actors are scattered throughout the movie. For me this particular aspect was what made the movie so engaging. One of the most memorable parts of the movie for me is when Olive's brother finds out that he is colourblind and that crushes his passionate dream.

The photography of this movie is really good too. A simple movie which probably doesn't allow for too much of computer graphics or spectacular visuals, it is full of interesting and heart warming picturization. I still remember the low angle shot of the VW family bus passing under those symmetrical freeway flyovers of a big city. The music throughout is really appropriate and good.

A really warm movie with a very human story involving very lovable characters. A definite must watch for those who haven’t already, certainly deserves a place in any movie collection. It’s already there in mine…