Little Miss Sunshine demonstrates the best and worst qualities of independent movies. Of course, even the worst of independent movies probably still beats the worst of the mainstream Hollywood machine. Hollywood big shots produced Lady In The Water and Snakes On A Plane, possibly the two worst motion pictures of the year. Little Miss Sunshine gets some of it right, some of it wrong, but does take a lot of wicked glee in breaking the formula--and that makes the film a VW load of fun.

In Little Miss Sunshine a dysfunctional family is determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant. Dysfunctional to say the least; the father is a twelve-step motivational speaker wannabe, the mother is an irritable slouch (though probably the least bothersome adult character), the son never speaks, the grandpa is a tough-talking troublemaker and the visiting uncle has just tried to commit suicide over a gay relationship that didn't work out. Just when you start to get uncomfortable and hope for the family's dissolution, which would be more of a mercy-killing, they are forced to take a cross-country trip together in a VW to attend the finals of a small time beauty pageant. Conflict happens, secrets are exposed and more strange but theoretically possible challenges ensue from there. Interestingly, the more outrageous and hopeless the circumstances seem to be, the more the family unites and accomplishes their goal in just a few steps short of twelve.

All the performances here are jovial without being anything too heavy. Greg Kinnear plays his usual shtick to maximum effect--that is the visionary doofus that celebrities love to laugh at for his charming shortcomings. (His most natural role was really the old cable show Talk Soup) The young actor Paul Dano delivers a funny and an emotionally charged performance, possibly the best of the group. As for the red hot ham Steve Carell--who seems to be starring in everything, on every network from every studio? As usual, and as he presumably learned from The Daily Show, he plays gay ultra-straight for the biggest laughs of the film. The least effective performance is actually the most talked about, as the Oscar-favored Alan Arkin plays a dirty old grandpa who flips off the world while patting his own family on the back. However, Arkin seems to lack a strong screen presence here, which makes a few of the bickering scenes seem a little over-rehearsed.

The major weakness of the film is also one of its strengths. The plot is ludicrous although the script contains some sharp comedic moments. Some touching drama also interrupts the quirk, proving that all families, even dysfunctional ones, still arrive at the same place of love and tolerance. Finally, Little Miss Sunshine features a third act so outrageous, and admittedly unexpected, that it will surely earn an Oscar nomination for writer Michael Arndt.

Little Miss Sunshine is a typical independent film, which is better than most of what the big studios have to offer, but not exactly a Tarantino or Cronenberg level masterpiece. It reminded me of a compromised Welcome To The Dollhouse, or a much less confused Fargo. The film was just so full of optimism and riotous laughs that it almost embarrassed the independent film genre, which is usually so verbose and occasionally pretentious. Little Miss Sunshine's bizarre third act is a great metaphor for what this film accomplishes in cinema history. Grade: B+

Little Miss Sunshine is now available on DVD.