Little Miss Sunshine
Like Anca, I saw Little Miss Sunshine yesterday, loved it, and found it a sweet antidote for the depression brought on by a movie I’d seen earlier. (In my case, that earlier movie was Grain in Ear.)
Sunshine’s six main characters, the Hoover family, are introduced in quick succession at the beginning of the movie. There’s the dreamy little girl, the sullen teenage brother, the depressive uncle, the well-meaning suburban parents, and the colorful live-in grandpa. In the space of a few minutes, I liked all six individuals, and felt I knew something about their relationships, and yet I didn’t feel like I’d been fed a laundry list of clichés. Very efficient storytelling, and they made it look effortless.
Some reviews have described the family as dysfunctional, but to me that word connotes a level of toxicity that I never felt among the Hoovers. They have problems and peculiarities, but they manage to communicate pretty well, and it’s always clear they love each other. Kind of like the Simpsons in this respect.
Sunshine is full of touching moments, but it never pats itself on the back for them. By the end, the movie has earned the right to indulge in a relatively over-the-top climactic moment.
I didn’t expect to like Sunshine as much as I did. In this respect it was like another movie about a wacky family, The Royal Tenenbaums. I had a real green-eggs-and-ham thing about that movie. Without having seen it, I was pretty sure I didn’t like it, but after hearing how great it was I finally saw it and liked it. I barely remember it except for Gene Hackman snidely calling Danny Glover “Coltrane.” I’m pretty sure I didn’t like it as much as I liked Little Miss Sunshine.
