Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

This is a movie about the typical disfunctional American family. The dad is a motivational speaker whose career is going nowhere but down. The mom is the normal mom just trying to get everything to work out and to keep everyone together. The son has taken a vow of silence for the past several months and spends his days working out in hopes of entering the Air Force Academy. The daughter is obsessed with beauty pageants and wants nothing more than to walk to the stage someday at Miss America. The grandpa has been kicked out of his nursing home for bad behavior, and the mom's brother just got out of the looney bin for trying to kill himself after a relationship gone bad.

Then one day they get a call saying that Olive, the daughter, is invited to compete in Little Miss Sunshine. Needless to say Olive is ecstatic and being that she is the only sane one in the family and the only one everyone likes, they all agree to get in their yellow VW van and the whole group heads to California.

Starring:
Steve Carell, Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, Paul Dano

Running Time: 1 hr. 41 min.
Release Date: July 26th, 2006 (limited); December 19, 2006 (DVD)
MPAA Rating: R for language, some sex and drug content.

My Rating : 4 stars
This was a much better movie than I had anticipated after hearing such mixed opinions about it. I was laughing constantly through the entire film, I don't think they could have put a better cast together. The only reason it's not getting 5 stars is because I thought the ending kinda sucked.

Who would I recommend this to? Anyone who can see humor in a disfunctional family, you know who you are! Great date movie and good for families with older children too.

Would I rent this again? Yes, in fact I may watch it again before sending it back.