——The normal state of failure Du Wener rushed out of the tattered Volkswagen minibus and howled loudly in the fields on the side of the road: "Divorce! Bankruptcy! Suicide! You are all losers!" Station Someone he scolded in the distance was a mother who was disappointed in his family, a father who failed to promote the so-called "nine-step success method" and was almost out of money, and an uncle who lost his academic reputation and a boyfriend of the same sex. Behind the car, there is also the corpse of the grandfather who passed away just after taking a drug overdose.
And Du Wener himself is experiencing two failures. First, when his sister took the color chart from the hospital to give him a test, he found that he was color-blind, so he could not go to the aviation school of his dreams; second, After most of the movie did not speak, he finally spoke, and the vow that he had never spoken could not persist.
This is a failed family. The most successful part of this movie is that it portrays the failures of everyone in this family very successfully. The main method of description is irony. Everyone seems to have the potential for success and ambition in their hearts, but their state and actions are all the best witnesses of failure. Father Richard is the most remarkable. He sells his "Nine Steps to Success" to others every day, hoping to rely on this to publish books, but no one buys his success course, and the agent tells him that no publisher is willing to publish his things. , This made my dad, who was counting on this successful method to make money, face bankruptcy. After he learned that he had failed, he stopped mentioning the successful method. Because his brother Du Wener was bored with this smoky family, he wanted to be admitted to aviation school and relied on Nietzsche’s philosophy of strong will. He decided not to speak and made a dumb oath. He hadn’t said a word for nine months and wanted to express himself. When he just nodded yes, shook his head no, or wrote viciously on a small notepad, but his will was not so strong at all. When he knew he was color-blind, those "fuck" shouts were louder than Nietzsche’s Superman philosophy. Much. Grandpa is a pervert who promotes his love affairs every day, believes in pleasure, and becomes addicted to drugs when he is old. He claims that "young people are stupid if they take drugs, and older people are stupid if they don't take drugs." As a result, he was kicked by a nursing home. After he came out, he died on the road after taking a drug overdose; Uncle Frank was a homosexual who claimed to be the "first person to study Proust" in the United States, but was robbed of the limelight by others and his boyfriend, and Proust, who he studied, "also He is a complete loser. No one reads the book he wrote. It is gay and troubled by his livelihood." Mom, try to straighten out the relationship in this family and tell everyone that love is the most important thing, and that everyone in the family must be loved. As a result, Du Wener hates everyone, Frank and Richard are in every word. To ridicule the other party, he himself has many conflicts with his husband.
The youngest daughter of the family, Oliver, is a chubby boy, but she is very keen on beauty pageants. The whole film is the process of a family driving a broken car on the road to accompany her to participate in the beauty contest.
Usually, the feeling of being on the road in a road movie will always arouse some courage and indulgence in people's hearts, so there will be a sense of inspiration, such as "Easy Rider", "Knight's Diary", and even the slow "Road Straight Road" bend". But this film is directed in another direction, the direction of emotional frustration. Not long after they hit the road, their classic car broke down, and there have been constant troubles since then. This fits well with the unprecedented sense of failure that the film will bring to the audience.
It's not too much of a failure, only my sister. After all, she is still a few years old and has not yet started her own way. A little encouragement from the family can be regarded as the director’s not-so-frustrated exit for the film. Of course, there is nothing completely uplifting. There is no general practice that the story of a general inspirational film falls to the bottom, and there will be a strong rebound. Oliver dances "dance." "At that time, there was no thunderous applause, and people kept exiting the stage, so the family went on stage to accompany her to play mischief. After the dance, there were only two applause. After being kicked out of the beauty pageant, his family members cheered each other up. Dad said, "You know, grandpa will be proud of your performance today." Oliver asked, "Really?" Mom replied, "You are amazing! "Uncle Frank hurriedly followed up: "You are better than you are!" My brother also said: "You are incredible!" This is where there is a sense of hope in the movie. Of course, this is not a success, or no success at all, which is why the movie cannot be completely relieved after being watched, and it still takes a small breath. Because the movie gave us an incomplete ending, this is also the reality that life brings to us.
The film contains a middle-aged crisis, an old age crisis, a youth crisis, a homosexual crisis, a success crisis... After watching it, the feeling of distress in my heart made me forget that this is a comedy. In fact, the movie has a lot of jokes, and it's also very funny. The funniest moment was when Oliver unexpectedly jumped up the striptease his grandpa taught him after he took the stage, rubbing the clothes on his little butt, and smoking the seven tricks that the old-fashioned judge Jenkins gave to him. Hurry up. Run to the host to let him stop the little girl's "nonsense". There is also grandpa in the car to teach his underage grandsons to seduce some girls, "They are underage, and you are underage, so this is the best match. When you are 18 years old, go to them again, you are threatening underage. Young girl." Then he began to talk loudly. Oliver, who was listening to music with earphones in front of him, suddenly took off the earphones and asked: "What are you talking about?" Grandpa froze for a moment, and replied in a serious manner: "Politics! "The pornographic pictorials left by grandpa finally helped the family get out of the crisis. The police told Dad to get out of the car for inspection. Dad's nervousness revealed that there were some bad things in their car. The police had to drive the back door to check. When my father thought Grandpa's body was about to be discovered, the pornographic pictorial came out. The police looked at the nervous father and suddenly said, "I like these too! Don't worry, I won't catch you. , I like these!" These jokes have somewhat eased the frustration of the audience and made us feel some kindness.
A few days ago, I read an article interviewing American investment guru Jim Rogers in the "Bund Pictorial". Rogers said that his grandmother had a sense of frustration. She was an excellent reporter. "She often held her head high to interview prisoners, but After marriage, she was trapped in mediocre housework, often full of anger." Rogers said in his speech: "There are losers everywhere, both in China and the United States." In fact, "Little Sunshine" tells us this simple truth. Failure caused by setbacks in life is the norm.
It's like the end of the movie, not reunion at all. After the family accompanies their youngest daughter to the beauty pageant, they were invited into the police station. They were threatened by Judge Jenkins, the judges, that they would be acquitted only if they would never participate in any beauty pageant in California. The uncle said: "This is a Acceptable suggestion.” Then the family packed up their things in embarrassment and got into the broken car that couldn't be manually pushed and only put into gear by everyone, and embarked on the way home, where the malfunctioning horn was still there.” "Beep" continuously. This unstoppable "beep" sound is also the trouble and frustration that ordinary people can't avoid on the road of life. Failed? Yes, but this is life.
Since last year’s Oscar, I’ve always wanted to watch, or almost wanted to watch this "Little Girl in the Sunshine", but the result is still dragged to the present. After watching it, I have a strong resonance. The audience rating of this film is usually very high, because most people can also find resonance, because most people live similar lives. In such ordinary days, success is about not failing. This is also the reason why this movie is not a cheap chicken soup for the soul. It does not tell us that there must be success after failure, nor does it say that there must be a rainbow after wind and rain. In fact, we all know that the chance of a rainbow after the rain is about the same as the chance that the fat daughter Oliver will win the championship in the beauty contest.
(Rating: 7.5/10)
Video information
"Little Miss Sunshine" (2006)
Director: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Screenplay: Michael Arndt
Released: 2006 Country/Region: United States
Starring: Abigail Breslin, Alan Arkin, Alan Arkin, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Toni Collette, Greg Kinney Greg Kinnear, Paul Dano
View more about Little Miss Sunshine reviews
