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Friday, October 20, 2006

Little ray of sunshine

Best Beloved is leaving on a jet plane at dawn's crack tomorrow for a week of business at the top end of Australia. (Lucky me has to drive him to the airport, thanks to Canberra's abysmal taxi service.) So tonight we went to the movies and saw Little Miss Sunshine.

I HIGHLY recommend this movie, especially if you are someone who finds child (and adult) beauty pageants distasteful, and also especially if you have been chewing the fat over the recent child sexualisation and corporate paedophilia issues. And even more so if you just like a good dark comedy.

There were moments in the film when I thought 'yeah, yeah', and it felt like a conventional road movie, but there were other moments when I was squirming and doubling up with mirth, and when I weighed it up at the end, the mirth well outweighed the cynicism. We walked out completely high, feeling righteous and jolly.

A review we read on the weekend said that the only decent acting was done by Toni Collett, but we thought different. Abigail Breslin was wonderful as Olive, with the right amount of plainness, inner beauty and innocence, and I have to admit to being quite fond of Grandpa. And Greg Kinnear is marvellous, as usual. In fact, dammit, I liked the whole family. But I'm not terribly discerning if I like something broadly.

See it! Do! And tell me how much you agree that the talent show ending* was spot on. Or maybe you don't. Your choice.





*SPOILER: where did they find such freaky kids? probably at a real quest.

7 comments:

Reel Fanatic said...

Here in the states at least, the hype for this one was almost overwhelming, so I was a little skeptical going in .. This is that rare breed of flick, however, that lives up and surpasses all its good word of mouth .. I too just loved it

Zoe said...

Yeah, Ducky, they were real pageant kids.

Anonymous said...

Ducky - DITTO. A gorgeous film. The ending was absolutely classic. Most I've enjoyed a flick in a while. Soundtrack is great as well.

Enny said...

This may have been the push enough to convince The Hun to come with me to see it - if only the girl buying my car would HURRY UP AND BUY IT!!!

I'll be sure to let you know what I think (I've only heard good things, and this cemented it!).

Mindy said...

Apparently the pageant kids (and parents) think the movie is great, even though it pokes fun at them, because the kids have made it to the big time and are in a movie. How sad is that?

Enny said...

I LOVED IT!

I laughed so hard I was crying - just before it got a little too cheesy with the circling around...

Ampersand Duck said...

Hooray!