Loads of people have been telling me that I REALLY ought to watch Little Miss Sunshine so in a very giving-into-peer-pressure sort of a way I watched the DVD at the weekend. In this case the peer pressure turned out to be positive and I found it a very moving film that included moments where I laughed out loud (very loud). This should have been a depressing film given the dysfunctionality of the family and the claustrophobic nature of the long road trip in a V dub van but somehow it wasn't. As a family and as individuals there was some growth and healing, not resolution but something important. I also felt it was a critique, using the beauty pageant and the 9 step success programme, of the disparity between what things are dressed up to be and what they really are.
As a youth worker though it was Paul Dano's portrayal of teenager Dwayne Hoover that stole the show, the character was well written and ably acted, exploring brilliantly an adolescent experience and viewpoint. The fact that he didn't speak at all for the first two thirds of the film was a very creative device. Fab!
Be warned though that the language is 'colourful' and some of the attitudes could offend, so probably not one for the youth residential OR the church weekend).
As Richard P. Feynman used to take his family out in a silver one of those - of course it's going to be interesting! Well, it couldn't hurt.