LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

A dysfunctional family consisting of an obnoxious motivational speaker father (Greg Kinnear), his long-suffering wife (Toni Collette), her suicidal Proust scholar brother (Steve Carell), a junkie grandfather (Alan Arkin), a teenage Nietzsche misanthrope (Paul Dano), and his 7-year-old little sister (Abigail Breslin) go on a life-altering road trip in this mediocre black comedy.

Husband-and-wife director team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris depend on their gifted cast to enrich Michael Arndt’s synthetic script, but the outcome is a watchable, if pretentious, movie with minor laughs for those willing to go along for the ride.

Hyped for garnering the highest price of a film ever sold at Sundance, "Little Miss Sunshine" is the name of the pre-teen beauty pageant that the family drives from their home in Albuquerque, NM to Redondo Beach, CA to enter their youngest progeny in. Oh the utter whiteness of it all. This is the kind of movie that makes teenage inexplicably paint their toenails bight yellow. 

Rated R. 99 mins. (C+) (Two Stars)