Plot: What’s it about?
Olive (Abigail Breslin) has won a chance to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant, which is a true honor. She didn’t win her local competition outright, but thanks to the real winner having to bow out, Olive took the crown. Now her family is en route to the event, but the trip won’t be a smooth one. Her mother Sheryl (Toni Collette) is serving up brutal truth, her father Richard (Greg Kinnear) is seeing his dream die, brother Dwayne (Paul Dano) refuses to speak, her uncle (Steve Carrell) is fresh off a suicide attempt, and her grandfather (Alan Arkin) is so ill behaved, he was booted from his old folks home. But the family tries to pull together and get Olive to the competition, even though no one thinks she can win. As the group ventures to the event, they’ll experience countless trials & tribulations, but can they band together and overcome?
I liked Little Miss Sunshine. This was a fun movie with some good laughs, but I don’t think it lived up to the immense hype it was given. I think of Little Miss Sunshine more as good, fun movie, as opposed to a brilliant masterpiece. The story is fine, but not some kind of remarkable masterwork, while the character development is solid, but again, nothing remarkable. Little Miss Sunshine is solid in all respects, so of course it is a good movie. But I never felt like this movie rose above the other solid comedies out there, even with some insightful moments about family dysfunction. Abigail Breslin turns in a good performance, but Alan Arkin steals the show and most of the memorable moments. Little Miss Sunshine is a well made, fun to watch movie. I wouldn’t call it much more than that, but even so, it is well recommended.
Video: How does it look?
Little Miss Sunshine is presented in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen. A rock solid visual effort, this transfer has a clean, sharp presence throughout. The image has good depth, perhaps not up there with Blu-ray’s best, but still a nice improvement over the DVD release. I found detail to be fine, especially in close-ups, but again, not often eye popping. The colors retain a bright, natural look and contrast is spot on. Not much else to talk about, a solid, if not always memorable visual effort.
Audio: How does it sound?
This DTS HD 5.1 option is solid all the way around, but the film’s sound design is unremarkable. Even so, the basics are more than covered and no errors or flaws seem to crop up. The audio here is all about the dialogue, so vocals needed to sound great and indeed that is the case. No volume issues arise and harshness is never a concern. The music adds some punch here and there, but more often than not, the surrounds remain reserved. This disc also includes Spanish, French, and Portuguese language tracks, as well as subtitles in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Korean, Cantonese, and Thai.
Supplements: What are the extras?
You can listen to two commentary tracks here, one with the film’s directors and the second with both the directors and the film’s writer. These are fun, candid tracks that reveal what is was like to be on the set of Little Miss Sunshine. Not all that informative in terms of technical data, but plenty of stories from the shoot and other anecdotes. A total of four featurettes are on deck, but these are more promotional than insightful. This disc also includes a gag scene, four alternate endings, webisodes, poster artwork, and some deleted scenes.
