Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine... the name doesn't exactly sum up the movie, but it still suits it really well. And, believe it or not, I love it.

Olive is a seven-year-old girl, who lives with her broken family - a father who is trying to sell a motivation programme (with no success), a Grandpa as rude and grungy as they can get (he 'snorts' drugs), a brother who won't speak until he is accepted into an Air Force (he is rather emo), a Uncle who has tried to commit suicide (he's piecing himself back together), and a Mother trying to hold her life together.

Olive entered into her State (it's american) Little Miss Sunshine Beauty Paegent, and came second, but then won by defult. They drive off to California for the finals.

Of Course, everything goes wrong. They are only just accepted, and then, the family finds that her routine (which was coreographed by Grandpa) is a huge shambles. But by the end of the fiasco, nearly everyone is happy.

To spoil it, I have to tell you - They become bankrupt, Grandpa dies, and the brother is found to be colour-blind (you have to have perfect vision to become a pilot).

That is my favourite bit. They have just come from smuggling the body of Grandpa back into the car, and are quietly dealing with their grief. Olive is testing her brother on his sight. She shows him a series of red and green dots - a green 'A' in a red background.
He doesn't see anything. The suicidal Uncle says "Can you see anything?"
The brother shakes his head.
Both Olive and her Uncle try to get him to see it, but with no success. Then, the brother writes on a notebook (he uses that instead of taking) "What?". Then, the Uncle says
"I think your colour-blind. You can't become a pilot if you are."
Blank looks, scared looks, angry and upset looks follow. They pull over (mainly to stop the Brother breaking the bus apart) and he stumbles out, onto the dry grass and screams "****!"
Ahh, nine months of silence. We wondered when it would break.

That made me cry. And Grandpa dying. Please, go to the DVD rentals and issue Little Miss Sunshine. It's amazing. You'll laugh, maybe cry, and feel so stunned at the end. WOW.

Love to y'all,
neina-marie, a buzzin' bee