LITTLE MISS CAN'T BE WRONG

By: B -- 9/30/06

I saw Little Miss Sunshine recently, and I’ve been sitting here racking my brain – to no avail – trying to think of a simpler/lazier movie plot. I’m sure there are a few, but as far as simplicity goes, they don’t come much more cut-n-dry than Sunshine. The premise: family goes on road trip, disasters ensue. Simple as that.

In fact, you can almost see screenwriter Michael Arndt sitting in his office, tugging at his hair, and finally throwing his arms up to say, “aw forget it, I can’t think of anything unique. I’ll just put six dysfunctional family members in a car and have them go on a road trip. That’ll practically write itself.”

So, he bestows outrageous one-dimensional character traits to each family member (Dad’s an unsuccessful motivational speaker, Mom’s loony despite attempts to hold the family together, Grandpa’s a druggie, Uncle’s a – get this – gay, suicidal scholar, Brother hasn’t spoken a word in nine months and young Sister is relentlessly cheery), creates a reason for the road trip (young sister’s beauty pageant) and gets to creating catastrophes.

The grandpa advises his grandson to screw as many women as possible. The father warns his daughter that ice cream will make her fat. The uncle sees his old boyfriend while buying a porn mag in a gas station. The vehicle breaks down. You name it, it happened. Each family member goes through one crisis or another, each family member attempts to help in his/her own odd way, but pretty much nothing gets solved.

Sunshine is an unabashedly over-the-top slapstick comedy – a surprising amount of absurdity, really, considering it’s an indie flick – but that screenwriter was right: it is a can’t miss concept. The “disastrous road trip” film never fails. Sunshine is ridiculous and implausible, but the ludicrous scenarios are hilarious, and thus, the film’s enjoyable.

POP RATING: 9

CRITICAL RATING: 6

B’S RATING: 7.5

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