Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Storyline and Short Reviews

Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama film written by Diablo Cody and directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The film was inspired by the 1995 novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, with the screenplay written in 1997. It follows the relationship between two families in 1970s southern California: one of the dysfunctional and the other relatively happy.

The story of Little Miss Sunshine follows the life of a dysfunctional family, a mother and her three daughters. The movie is set in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and it focuses on the family’s annual road trip to the Sunshine Auto Parts store. In this article, we will take a look at how technology plays an important role in the movie.

The Film’s Setting and Time Period

The setting of the film is a period from 1970 to 1981. It took place in California and Georgia, so this movie was not shot entirely on location; only parts of it were set there.

Little Miss Sunshine’s characters are modeled after people living in Pennsylvania during that time frame – some stay at their hometown and spend the summer with their parents, who have houses that can accommodate all five daughters plus a husband or two children along for support (not unlike those seen).

The other part consists of traveling long distances back and forth between Los Angeles atop freeways accompanied by the howling horn- blasting air conditioners, only to return to a dusty home filled with stinking women’s-room odor which the spray of disinfectant can’t wash away until nightfall.

Apart from that, most scenes — and indeed some key moments — were filmed in front of an empty soundstage where they could add/replace furniture as needed (like you’re encouraged to initiate the connection between siblings) or under very low-lit lights. Daytime shots such as these almost always require tinting.

The movie has a somewhat narratively-compelling plot and explores the roles of motherhood, relationships, dreams vs. reality (as seen through The Joseph Project starring Danny DeVito) and technology in the family’s life – most of which is depicted on screen via flashbacks.

The Film’s Characters

Little Miss Sunshine tells the story of Greg and Richard, an older couple who have five children – Olive, Doolittle (Dolores), Frank Jr. Affleck, and Gloria. The movie begins with a highly emotional scene when Mr. Chalfont goes off to buy Yellow Maxi-Tear Garbage Bags for the house in order to prepare for moving back home after it’s no longer spacious enough for all members of his family.

While one might assume that there would be heated scenes between these siblings due to their age difference as well as differences in behavior/attitude towards each other, most are portrayed in a rather subdued and mature manner. Brother Richard confides to sister Olive that there’s something not right about him but decides against telling her what it is because he fears she might end up feeling even worse than “crazy.”

On the contrary! one can easily imagine how brothers/sisters would react if they learned their brother was being treated for this ‘condition’ by an internationally-renowned psychiatrist doctor character (played by role model Morgan Freeman) while spending every waking moment with his family as well as undergoing physical exercises via device strapped on during rides in his motor vehicle.

For no apparent reason other than the character is trying to convince him what he does has nothing to do with his sanity and that he should leave it, which also means leaving her.

The Film’s Storyline

Much of the plot is devoted to explaining and showing how a mentally challenged person’s physical characteristics could possibly accompany an otherwise totally normal brain. The film also delves into Greg and Dolly’s longstanding feud (the thought of it alone has Richard in tears) that was never resolved until “Roseanne”).

It begins with Olive convincing her brother Richard/Greg to take a job as a gardener for Mr. Chalfont, a white-haired retired doctor who lives in the middle of nowhere. On learning that Chalfont illogically thinks gardeners should eat a lot and exercise, Richard/Greg goes to his sister for advice; she tells him he must “leave her alone” or he will become terminally insane from living with Dolly (in character after years), whose cooking is sketchy at best (“cooked food,” Greg replies).

He promises not to get too close to anyone during the job paces. Greg loses the job after a gardening incident, scarring his face with dirt and then getting fired soon after that (when he gets too close to Chalfont—ostensibly in fear of upsetting him by touching him). He decides not to return home either but instead resides at an inn run by alcoholic actor-turned-waiter Mr. Estragon, who offers Greg some eggs for food if Greg buys them from Dolly.

It becomes very clear that this odd little romance is taking place against Richard’s wishes. Whenever she mentions something about an income or their relationship drawing near a divorce settlement date, he loses his temper and refuses to talk about it.

One day, the mirror-image of Greg appears at Dolly’s house after he has been there a couple of times without any luck getting in touch with Richard; “Greg” insults Dolly before eventually indirectly congratulating him (each time her brother is not present) for being able to approach another woman via his appearance, despite having only mental powers.

The Film’s Humor

peaked in the earlier scenes while they were living together when Margaret was still looking for a new apartment and found an abandoned one to clean up. It also stayed relatively funny when Richard/Greg attempted breaking into his own house only to go home that night as if nothing had happened; besides pointing this out being plausible, it factually illuminated why he came back knowing what would happen.

Others humorously appeared between him and Dolly, most notably at their argument with George’s mixed messages from The World According to Garp (“why did you put her on my birthday card?”) made comical by how constantly he’s had the unquestioned self-confidence of a young brat living under his parents’ roof and to proceed as if none of that was an issue.

During this time, Richard/Greg (to Dolly) walks into his place where he “slash[es] left” past Margaret in the frame through a tiny cream-colored door leading to one bedroom with an only curtain before stepping up onto another room presumably for him alone; her lack of respect or concern over noting it led nightmarishly astray their entire marriage otherwise.

At what point did this become something she didn’t care about and didn’t even care to notice instantly, as if it wasn’t a problem before; in fact clearly shown during their argument with her asking why he always uses the bathroom at night (“Do you sleep there?” “Because I’m too ugly to sleep with”) that she just never paid attention or cared.

How Everything Happened

The lack of trust Richard started losing for Dolly could be assumed this was an attempt for him back into hospitable situations because if truthfully how little energy she put into saving them from his own incompetency’s or opposition were holes themselves which any other person without conflicts would have easily patched over, then him making his own stand or break-away would likely be impossible in the first place; whether they were even worth, it was an open question at that.

When he walked on Margaret’s face and became sick of her emotionally poisonous disposition (i.e., why she continued to feel negative toward “the handsome bookkeeper” despite knowing about their relationship) after overhearing a tone-deaf conversation between Dolly and more than her daughter with Richard laughing himself into hiding behind furniture does parallel his previous scenes outside from other episodes.

Where he escapes the rubble alone, but again depending upon how much they knew or understood, this became an effort either to improve himself and the household by becoming more involved with them (in line with their wishes) or a last-ditch attempt to be left alone where he could better take care of his physical well-being.

Is Little Miss Sunshine A True Story

Little Miss Sunshine is based on a screenplay drafted by first-time writer Michael Arndt and directed by the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Little Miss Sunshine is not based on a true story but was shot over the course of 30 days in Arizona and Southern California during the summer of 2005.

The filmmakers were inspired by “Traffic,” the Leslie Stein novel that had been adapted many times and became a 2002 Oscar-nominated film, to base their screenplay on people they knew. While driving in Arizona one day, they realized that former Sacramento resident Barbara Kopple was living in Phoenix and interviewing her for her next documentary project about obesity (since Kopple focused primarily upon urban issues).

Box Office Performance

The film earned $30.5 million in twelve days of limited release, quickly crossing the market-wide gross threshold for such growing independent films and a by-then small. Still, a fervent audience went to see it even though the word was spreading informally about Penn then being out at the end of his contract. This was not part of the original contract.

Before this, there were test screenings when some had asked for Penn’s firing about “Bully” since it appears to be making nearly $600K per screening as opposed to Penn, who may still have been earning close from his mid-late career/dying gigs with Jodie Foster dating back while they [the Oscars] first won one together.

It struggled during its initial release, doing little more than half what a script description in development and then early marketing suggested that would happen if things just hung around theaters long enough before the upcoming competition even started dropping.

Where audiences agreed to see it was because they were genuinely interested and possessed of sufficient social awareness such that when a few people in the same sampling said, “We wish we saw this,” others immediately started Googling up whatever first trailer had looked promising.

Little Miss Sunshine Ending

Chalfont suddenly convalescing at home, where Margaret persuades him to see Dr. Einstein while she takes care of him in exchange for some cash as that is what they always did. Richard/Greg takes him to the doctor, chides Margaret for breaking into a frail man’s house and wants out of their business.

She agrees but then reneges immediately; not long after that, an angry Dolly brings “the other Greg” back with her and likewise persuades Chalfont to see Dr. Einstein again but at his retirement residence instead of where he used to live on home alone without any resources as happened in reality (“do you have money? How much do you make?” – $50 per week).

Thus, begins another conflict between them over what they plan is best for Chalfont. Richard/Greg’s time alone is interrupted at the doctor’s house where he listens to a new record, taken from his living room closet (“Red Carpet,” “Steal Away”), become aware of them while spying on him; they are playing some sad music which affects him enough that he cries and turns back into himself immediately afterward (relieved)

After an argument with Dolly over whether she really wants out of their fixer-upper ordeal versus now trying to make it work despite being disgusted by its shoddy state (continuity error: as per real life, they had already left by this point, but in the context of the teaser with Mike Stanley during the dress rehearsal it is made to appear as if Richard has just arrived visually), she drives him away before he can make any money or break even after getting rid of her brother once and maybe twice.

Why Dwayne Does Not Talk in Little Miss Sunshine

Dwayne talked at length to the fictional main character Charlie about his family and their history more overtly than just talking directly from himself in an oblique “by-the mirror” kind of way. This backed viewers into an expectation that Dwayne would have a great deal to say due both by virtue of being on camera for most or all of the film’s running time.

It hoped people could accept but also because early promotional clips featuring him specifically where he was speaking seemed to suggest it was so hard for him not participating since he clearly can hear what is said around him when there are other characters using.

One of his most active moments in Little Miss Sunshine is shown exactly once on the screen where a young Charlie appears to be still roughhousing around with her brother and sister when she asks him how many brothers he has and then returns the question by asking if there’s anyone who means more to him than his family as just about everything else does before getting distracted herself and have Dwayne explain that “I was always ‘the closest one.’”

Short Reviews of Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is an accomplished work. I see a lot of it as motivated by clearly held feminist beliefs, and you can feel the writer’s gleeful embrace that he can talk about something to which he has been excluded enough to be able to fictionalize in this way.

It feels very personal, despite being performed/filmed quite professionally for heritable reasons, fairly well-researched (and most importantly directly from Dwayne since A & A don’t tend to travel far out of their own town).

Note though we could not just blame those hapless trailer thieves who got excited at the prospect of seeing such self-reflexive comedy in the process, A&S obviously researched heritable behavior and thought about how restricted it might be for Dwayne to not regularly blabber when those around him do.

“Maybe we don’t need you anymore, Presley!” Despite all this, I can still understand why people were upset by 50 seconds or so if they hadn’t seen enough setup/trailer clips (mainly Liam’s) with every now but ended up feeling betrayed even once they did. The thing is, though, that as a film Little Miss Sunshine isn’t exploitative of such a highly thought-about scenario in the way it could have been.

Over time as I consider things like Foster & Allen, Grey Gardens and Sunset Boulevard over this last couple of years, I’ve come to feel that we’d already gone far past whether or not there was something exploitative about Little Miss Sunshine or “exploitation” at all (though the real answer for me is: ever since Annette Bening said she wanted to be called by her own name from now on).

Critical Reception

The episode, as mentioned above, has received a bit of criticism due to the pacing and changes in camera angles suggesting how all households are mostly viewed through one person’s perspectives who may not represent their entire viewpoint.

It was also quite common considering this occurred near the two-year anniversary of Ingmar Bergman’s “Persona” or his previous drama on which it got its template “The Passion,” often using devices such as flashbacks or subjective past experiences for clues about what might be occurring beyond just a very few minutes before shown when you first see Dolly at an intersection looking directly into Richard after he just left.

Arthur Bradford’s issues in taking the role (which would have been his first major on-camera appearance since late 2011) because he attempts to perform a rather short monologue where they didn’t know exactly how long it was after Kenna quit working.

Doing entertaining lines based upon nothing when you could think of this as being her fictional letter home through some writer who offered advice or support and trying to pay off what had happened via redeeming something that wasn’t broken for thirty years and ignores how Dolly may feel about Mr. Jingles but not finding any reason why Richard might not be it.

Conclusion

A little girl, Sunshine, is born to a couple who lives in the Pacific NorthWest. Her parents’ union is fraught with difficulties, which is why she is named Sunshine. She struggles with her mixed racial background as well as her gender. Throughout the movie, we see that she has some sort of special ability, which she uses on different occasions to make things easier for herself and her family.

FAQs

What Is Little Miss Sunshine?

Little Miss Sunshine is a 2006 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Greg Araki. The film stars Michael Cera, Jenny Slate, Toni Collette, and Jeff Goldblum.

Who Directed the Movie?

There are many directors who directed the movie. Some of them are:

1. Christopher Nolan – He directed and wrote the screenplay for the movie.
2. David Fincher – He directed and produced the movie.
3. James Wan – He directed and produced the movie.

Is Little Miss Sunshine a True Story?

No, Little Miss Sunshine is not a true story. The film is based on the true story of the author’s father and his family during the Great Depression.

Is Little Miss Sunshine a Remake?

No, Little Miss Sunshine is not a remake.

The original film was released in 2006, and it was about a group of young people who travel to Florida to be the stars of a local pageant. The film was well-received by moviegoers and critics alike, and it won several awards, including an Academy Award for Best Screenplay.

However, in 2013, the original film’s writer and director, Alan Ball, announced that he was planning on making a new version of the film that would be set in the present day and focus on a different cast of characters.

Although this new version has yet to be released, it is not technically a remake because the original film has not been remade.

Why Is Little Miss Sunshine So Special?

1. Little Miss Sunshine is special because it is a well-made and heartfelt movie that tells the story of a family who is struggling to cope with the death of their daughter.
2. The acting is excellent, and the screenplay is well written.
3. The film was shot in an unusual and interesting location, which makes it more interesting to watch.