MOVIE REVIEWS BY DAVE SMITH
This low budget little film received a
standing ovation after it was screened at the Sun Dance Film
Festival. After seeing it, I can understand why this happened.
It's a refreshing little film. No big stars, no huge special
effects, no trite script and, to top it off, it's an
honest-to-goodness-satire. What does it satirize? Those
little "beauty contests" which feature pubescent girls dressed
in sexy clothes and lathered in make-up. Is there something wrong
with this kind of an event?
Well there is nothing wrong with this
film. Like "Prairie Home Companion," it's a breath of
fresh air. They don't make many movies like this any more. A
screwball dysfunctional family decides to enter their 7 year old
daughter in a kiddy beauty/talent contest. They have to travel from
New Mexico to California in a broken-down old van that won't start unless
it is pushed and has a horn that blares intermittently for no
reason. Grandpa, played by the irrepressible Alan Arkin, has been
kicked out of his Nursing Home for snorting cocaine. He is the one
who is teaching little Olive (Abigail Breslin) how to perfect her act for
the contest. Her brother, Dwayne, is so depressed he has taken a vow
of silence and doesn't speak. The father, Greg Kinnear, is a failed
motivational speaker. Kinnear's brother, played by Steve Carrell, is
the number one Proust scholar in America. He has just attempted suicide
because his male lover left him for the number two Proust scholar. Toni
Collette is the long suffering Mom who doesn't quite know how to handle
her family.
With a cast like this, how can you go wrong? Somehow this
family makes it to California. Unfortunately Grandpa died along the
way. However they don't have time to dispose of the body so they
just take him along. (A la Imogene Coca in "National Lampoon's
Vacation.") The climactic moment when little Olive gets to compete
with a dazzling array of overly talented little girls dressed in Jon Benet
Ramsey type costumes is somewhat of a surprise.
This is a film which
proves the old adage that "less is more." You don't need
big money, spectacular sets, the latest digital effects, the biggest
stars...all you need is a good script and a nice ensemble of excellent
actors.