Little Miss Sunshine is a family comedy with all the boundaries set by similar films. On the surface, Little Miss Sunshine is just another comedy about a road trip gone wrong, but it is much more than that. The dialogue is hilarious and the characters have deep histories that are revealed throughout the film. Despite the title, the film does not focus on the beauty pageant for which the film is named, but on the voyage to the pageant that takes three days with many hilarious breakdowns of both the car and its passengers.

Head of the family, Richard, is a hopelessly optimistic motivational speaker whose "Nine Step Program" for success is not successful. The mother, Sheryl is the glue that holds this family together. She works at a hospital and encourages her family to always be honest, although she lies about smoking.

Their son Dwayne is a hilariously entertaining "angry teenager" who hates his family and life at home. His most notable characteristic is that he has taken a vow of silence until he reaches his dream, attending the Air Force Academy. Olive, the daughter, is a plump seven year old with glasses who gained entry into the beauty pageant at the last minute.

She is coached by her grandfather who taught Olive her talent, which is kept secret from the rest of the family until the pageant. Grandpa is a pleasure-seeking old man with a foul mouth and a heroine addiction that recently got him kicked out of his retirement home.

Topping off the family is Sheryl's suicidal brother, Frank, who is fresh out of the hospital from a failed suicide attempt after being dumped by his gay lover. He was once a very successful Proust Scholar and professor until his world collapsed around him.

The journey starts when Olive is invited to compete in the "Little Miss Sunshine" competition in California due to a last minute drop out from the pageant. The family piles into their VW Bus and starts a hilarious three-day journey.

The bus' clutch breaks midway through the trip and cannot be fixed. In a bind, they take the advice of the mechanic who says that the clutch is not needed to change from third to fourth gear and that they should park on a hill or push the car to start it in third gear.

The clan runs into a multitude of other problems on the way but they reach the competition just in time. The family is completely blown away by the young beauty queens in the pageant, but Olive stays confident. The movie ends with the hilarious talent portion of the competition, in which the entire family ends up participating.

Little Miss Sunshine is a hilariously heartwarming movie about a family coming together to reach a common goal. It is a definite must see.

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