The Warm Fuzzies

Watch “Little Miss Sunshine”. If you have read any of the rare reviews that poo-poo the film for being a bit too sweet at the end, or for the characters being a bit too quirky, know that those reviewers are dead inside. They are the people who think flowers are tacky, nothing is fun and comment that your newborn baby looks kinda fat.

The movie had me and the 3 friends I went with laughing throughout. Abigail Breslin as Olive is so sweet without being saccharine which is usually really hard with child actors. The entire cast is brilliant and everyone has scenes and lines that are so memorable: “Sweet…Sweetness” being a group favourite. (You’ll have to watch it to know why). Everyone is damaged, from the suicidal uncle to the father fighting desperately to not become the “loser” he’s always preaching against. Even the bus they drive is falling apart, but it’s the perfect central motif for the movie. Even when things collapse and fail and disappoint, there is that bond that makes it easier to bear, when someone else matters more to you than yourself.

After the craptacular “Step Up”, the worse-than-possibly-imagined “X3” and the ho-hum ‘Superman” it was nice to watch a movie that brought some light to an otherwise bleak movie-watching summer.