MovieChat Forums > Little Miss Sunshine (2006) Discussion > amazing movie, but

amazing movie, but

posted 9 years ago by ArtAesthetics
12 replies | jump to latest

The whole child stripping scene spoilt the fun for me. It was over the top forced & not believable.

How in world the did the parents not know what dance the daughter had been practicing with grandpa? It was no secret the grandpa's obsession with lewd sex & inappropriate talk. And why would the family be so clueless about the nature of these pagents anyway? Everyone dancing on stage was a bit forced and so been there done that.

Some other kind of contest like a spelling bee or something would've been more believable. Jmo.

But other than that, I loved the movie. The acting/writing/direction was amazing & I was once again reminded how awesome of an actor Greg Kinnear is.

[–] Michael71 9 years ago

Yeah I love Greg Kinnear, he is great in "Body Double" and I think I'm going to have to re watch "The Riches" as he was great in that too!

[–] akinilori007 9 years ago

I think this is a case of mistaken identity. I think the actor you're talking about is actually Gregg Henry and not Greg Kinnear.

[–] snelling 9 years ago

The Olive striptease was the funniest part of this amazing movie.

"I will not go down in history as the greatest mass-murderer since Adolf Hitler!" - Merkin Muffley

[–] jmrex 9 years ago

So they get to the spelling bee and what happens?

[–] mariajoze14 9 years ago

I hope @ArtAesthetics replies.

[–] SataiDelen 9 years ago

You've missed one of the points of the movie. This movie was about body image and the perceptions people have over what someone (in this case, a girl/woman) should look like based upon society's ideals. A spelling bee would not have conveyed the needed massage at all.

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[–] chas437 9 years ago

Exactly right, AND, the pageants that these young children participate in are just as portrayed, sexualizing 6 year old girls.

The greatest irony of the film is that the pageant directors thought Olive's routine was overly sexual and inappropriate.

[–] Moviegoer19 7 years ago

Of all the comments I've just read here, this one makes the most sense to me: this film was about body image and the hypocrisy of the child beauty pageants. The whole issue about Olive eating ice cream or not, and then getting to the pageant and asking "Miss California" if she eats ice cream. And then, these little dolled up girls with make up and bikinis and teased hair... they were considered the norm if not the ideal. But when Olive got up there and did what they considered a perverse dance, then a little girl being sexualized was not OK. The greatness of the ending was that despite their problems and issues, the family stuck together, and thereby made their little girl feel OK about herself.

[–] MrMan71 9 years ago

I kind of thought the same thing, however, I chalked it up to the nature of this dysfunctional family; everybody was so self absorbed and too busy with their own lives that they couldn't be bothered to pay attention to what grandpa was teaching her.

[–] janet-conant 8 years ago

Even when they all join Olive on stage and do their own interpretive dance to Super Freak I was thinking what a fabulous moment. It all worked for me. Some movies always have that feel good saccharine ending but this was actually believable. Maybe they were dysfunctional but the road trip, the death of grandpa, Dwayne's meltdown and the final dance number were perfect. What a great cast. I love this film! When Olive says her grandpa is in the trunk it was one of films' great lines. I laughed out loud and I don't do that much.

[–] Cleo08 8 years ago

I kind of have the seem feeling - I really liked the movie but wasn't so keen on the ending... Same kind of thing I actually had with The Silver Linings Playbook. I felt that the dance was too silly somehow for them to expect they could actually win it.

[–] laurenmeyering 7 years ago

I would like to argue that the child stripping scene was, on the contrary, entirely necessary...and here's why I believe why.
1. It showed exactly what you were asking: "How in world the did the parents not know what dance the daughter had been practicing with grandpa? " That's just it. The parents are incredibly disinterested in anything going on with their daughter. Each member of this family is so caught up within their own issues and problems that this is revealed to be entirely shocking when Olive does her ending strip number. That also rings true with the overall nature of not knowing about the pageant world. Once again each member is so invested in their own goals and lives that they don't know what they're in for until they arrive at the Little Miss Sunshine pageant.
I feel it needed to be a pageant about beauty. It would be too easy to watch little Olive win a spelling bee because-let's face it-- she looks like the type of girl that would win a spelling be. The fact that this round-tummied, oversized-glasses little girl is competing in a pageant is entirely unbelievable- yet it keeps us, the audience, interested in the end result. Sure it can also say something about inner beauty, but we won't get into the cliches, am I right?
Just my thoughts!!