If you see only one movie this year, this one would be it.

Little Miss Sunshine is a pseudo-dark comedy featuring an American dysfunctional family who must endure and support each other while they take a road-trip to California to attend the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant— which seven-year-old Olive, the family’s cutest and youngest member, hopes to win.

In the movie, each member of the family has its share of problems, but for the sake of the little Olive, they manage to set aside everything— including the displeasure of dealing with each other— and cram themselves in Volkswagen van for several days.

Of course, the family is encounters some serious issues as well as some silliness along the way.

A tremendously laugh out loud movie.

I don’t know whether it is truly related to the movie or not, but the main theme of the story parallels a book by Roger Hargreaves. Many of you might recall the Mr Man and Miss Little book series as a child— Mr Happy and Mr Messy are definitely the most popular.

In one of the collections, a character, Little Miss Sunshine, finds herself in a place called Miseryland. Even though she was in such a sad place, she finds herself always happy. During her adventures, she meets King of Miseryland, manages to make him laugh, and renames Miseryland to Laughterland.

During the movie, you really sense how the plots are similar, Olive’s bright and lovable character enables the family to overlook its differences and manages brings the family together.

What makes the movie so great, aside from the laugh-out-loud situations, is that little Olive, like Little Miss Sunshine, is able to remarkably change the family around to the better.

You just come out of the movie feeling really good— my body felt all happy and gooey.

Little Miss Sunshine - [imdb.com]
Little Miss Sunshine (Book) - [amazon.ca]