Movies: Little Miss Sunshine

Mixing drama and comedy is invariably risky. A pure comedy, unencumbered by real consequences and negative emotions, is easier to make and infinitely easier to sell. But some movies, like "Little Miss Sunshine," have the unique ability to blend the absurd with the serious.

"Little Miss Sunshine" is the debut feature-length effort from Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, a prolific music video directing team whose credits include music video classics like The Smashing Pumpkins' "Tonight, Tonight":



The movie conerns a road trip undertaken by a dysfunctional family of losers, played by a fine ensemble cast. Greg Kinnear turns in literally the best performance I've ever seen from him, and Alan Arkin and Abigail Breslin's grandfather-granddaughter relationship is about as real as can be hoped for.

There are some belly laughs to be found here, especially if you don't mind macabre humor. The final sequence has echoes of "Napoleon Dynamite" but manages to be simultaneously more realistic and more funny - quite a feat. It's also fortuitous that they didn't cast a bigger name comedian, like Robin Williams or Bill Murray, in place of Steve Carrell.

Here's the final number of the film (SPOILERS!) :



Rating: 9/10