Dad hopes to become a motivational guru. Chubby little Olive is determined to become a prepubescent beauty queen, the «Little Miss Sunshine» of the title. That goal is not particularly advanced by her brother or her uncle, a Proust scholar coming off a suicide attempt. Mom is loving but too distracted to cook. American dysfunction! Is there anything more comically inspiring than a hard, hilarious look at the reality behind this ruling cliché? For all the exaggerations in the script, it comes closer to the truth about the way people really live - on the edge of fantasy-driven desperation - than our sanctimonies permit us to think. The whole Hoover bunch piles into a Volks-wagen bus so that Olive can take her shot at the Miss Sunshine crown. The vehicle is a perfect symbol of the family's tenuous grip on reality: only the third and fourth gears are functioning. (Richard Schickel)