Yawen Lin: Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine is a comical and dramatic movie about the life of a dysfunctional family who journeyed to California to enter their daughter, Olive, in a beauty pageant. Over the course of their journey, their bond as a family strengthens as well as their individual growths. The family consisted of 6 members: Sheryl Hoover (the mother), Richard Hoover (the father), Frank Ginsberg (the uncle and Sheryl's brother), Dwayne Hoover (the son), Olive Hoover (the daughter), and Edwin Hoover (the grandfather and Richard's father). The movie opens up with a sneak peak of each of the family member's lives and their individual conflicts.

The scene first begins with Olive who is watching a beauty pageant as she is clutching her chubby stomach and imitating the winner of the pageant's actions. Olive's actions reveal that she is enamored with beauty pageants and she deeply wishes to be in one. The clutching of her stomach hints at her low self-confidence. Her figure is not the ideal for beauty pageants, but she still wishes to be in one as shown when she is imitating the winner as if she is the one who won. Then the scene shifts to Richard who is teaching the notion that there are two types of people in the world, a winner and a loser, which will later become the film's theme, to an audience. However, there are only a couple of people attending his lecture, revealing the ineffectiveness of his teachings. In the next scene, it shows Dwayne exercising intensely. This reveals that he is a hardworking individual with a goal in mind. The next scene shows Edwin smoking a drug through his nostrils. His actions informs the audience that he is a drug addict. Then the scene switches to Sheryl who is driving, talking on the phone, and smoking at the same time. These multitasked actions reveal that she is busy and very stressed. This transitions to a scene where Frank is in a hospital wheelchair and is staring gloomy at the window. This reveals that he has been in some sort of accident. By showcasing a bit of each of the family members lives, it gives the audience an idea on what the members are like and what they're struggling with.

One of the concept the movie encompasses is family bond. During the beginning of the movie, when the family is gathering around the table for a meal, arguments between the mother and father occurred. This reveals that the mother and father's current relationship isn't a good one. Then the next scene shows Olive receiving a phone call informing her about her qualification for the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty pageant at Redondo Beach, California. This sets the beginning of the movie's journey. During the course of their journey, the family encounters many setbacks, such as the van not functioning correctly, Edwin's death from heroine overdose, Frank encountering his ex-boyfriend who left him for his academic rival, which then prompted his earlier attempt to suicide, Richard's lost of an important business contractor, and Dwayne's realization that he's colorblind which then led him to have an emotional breakdown as well as unleashing his long closed voice. However, despite those setbacks, the family overcomes them by learning to rely on each other's support. One instance of those familial supports were shown when Edwin dies on the same day as the beauty pageant. Richard, knowing that they came this far, doesn't want to go back home for the funeral. Instead he encourages the family to bring the dead body of his grandfather with them as they head for the beauty pageant. At first Sheryl is reluctant on the idea, but she eventually gives in and decides to support his decision. This scene shows how the broken bond between them is slowly rekindling over the course of their trip.

5 Adjectives: encouraging, determination, reflection, adventurous, challenging

Thesis: Little Miss Sunshine utilizes each of the family member's conflicts to expand the concepts of winners and losers and the growing familial bond throughout the film.