When a pudgy, bespectacled seven-year-old, Olive (Abigail Breslin), voices her desire to take home the coveted Little Miss Sunshine crown at an upcoming beauty pageant, her wildly dysfunctional family sets out on an interstate road trip to ensure her a clear shot at realizing her dreams in former music video directorial team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' quirky feature debut, starring Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, and Toni Collette. Despite early career success as an outspoken motivational speaker, family patriarch Richard (Kinnear) continues to cling to his "Refuse to Lose" philosophy, much to the chagrin of his increasingly annoyed spouse, Sheryl (Collette). Add into the mix a Nietzsche-reading teenage son (Paul Dano) who has taken a vow of silence until he finds his fate as a fighter pilot; a horny, heroin-happy grandfather (Alan Arkin) with a penchant for creative profanity; and a suicidal genius (Carell) and Proust scholar still reeling about losing both his male lover and his MacArthur Foundation genius grant -- and the stage is set for a road trip in which sanity is sure to take the back seat.
(http://www.moviefone.com/movie/little-miss-sunshine/24997/synopsis)
(http://www.moviefone.com/movie/little-miss-sunshine/24997/synopsis)
Discussion Questions- Holiday Homework
Questions for discussion
1. What did you enjoy about Little Miss Sunshine? What didn’t work for you? Do you think you would have enjoyed it more or less without the features that make it darker than a typical family comedy?2. Little Miss Sunshine has been described as ‘an American family road comedy that shatters the mould.’ In what ways does it conform to the conventions of the road comedy genre, and in what ways does it subvert them?
3. ‘I absolutely loved the script and also really loved this dysfunctional family who are just learning to get along for the first time. I got completely involved with them. Their frustrations and their yearnings felt very real to me and also quite universal. I found myself laughing and crying at the same time even as I read it.’ (Toni Collette)
How did you respond to the family? To what extent do you think their frustrations and yearnings are universal? Which members of the family did you particularly connect with? Why?
4. ‘Family means everything to Sheryl. So she feels that she would do absolutely anything to smooth things over and make everyone happy – whatever that might take.’ (Toni Collette) ‘We wanted to make a film not about family values, but about the value of family.’ (Valerie Faris)
What does Little Miss Sunshine have to say about the value of family? Is Sheryl right to do whatever it takes to make everyone happy? What does it take for families to work?
5. ‘There are two kinds of people in this world, winners and losers.’ (Richard) Is Richard right? Which category do the members of the Hoover family fit into? How do you see yourself?
6. ‘A real loser isn't someone who doesn't win. A real loser is someone so afraid of not winning they don't even try.’ (Grandpa) How is Grandpa’s definition of losers better than Richard’s? Do you think he is right? Why/why not?
7. What impact does Grandpa’s death have on the family? In what ways had he been both a positive and a negative influence on Olive?
8. How do the members of the family react when their dreams lie in ruins? What do they learn through these experiences
9. ‘Who is that? Nietzsche? So you stopped talking because of Friedrich Nietzsche? Far out.’ (Frank) ‘I think Dwayne's someone a lot of people will identify with right away. Everyone goes through a period where they don't really like their family, but you also know that you will always have some kind of bond with them. When you're fifteen, I think you start to lose your innocence and you see that these people around you are kind of crazy and you're not sure if you really want to participate in that, which is why Dwayne takes his vow of silence. But then when he finally cracks, when he's in his most vulnerable moment, his family is there for him and I think he's actually able to take that in.’ (Paul Dano)
What effect did Nietzsche’s thinking have on Dwayne? In what ways does he grow up during the journey?
10. How did you react to the Little Miss Sunshine contest – and especially to Olive’s performance? In what ways is this a satirical reflection on the nature of children’s beauty pageants and on parents’ expectations of their children?
11.. ‘You know what? F*** beauty contests. Life is one f****** beauty contest after another. School, then college, then work . . . F*** that. And f*** the Air Force Academy. If I want to fly, I'll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and f*** the rest.’ (Dwayne) To what extent is this a good perspective on life? What are the problems with it?
12. Dwayne: I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all this crap – high school and everything – just skip it
Frank: You know Marcel Proust?
Dwayne: He's the guy you teach.
Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent twenty years writing a book almost no one reads. But he's also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, those were the best years of his life, because they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn't learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you're eighteen . . . Ah, think of the suffering you're going to miss. I mean high school? High school! Those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that."
What truth is there in what Frank says? How have the family as a whole discovered this during their trip?
13. ‘Every character in this story undergoes a major transformation – even the family's VW bus.’ (Producer Ron Yerxa) How does the VW bus serve to help draw the family together? In what ways is its steady disintegration a metaphor for what is happening within the family? How are the family members transformed? In what ways has Olive been the one who has brought peace?
Unattributed quotes from the film production notes
© Copyright: Tony Watkins 2007
1. What did you enjoy about Little Miss Sunshine? What didn’t work for you? Do you think you would have enjoyed it more or less without the features that make it darker than a typical family comedy?2. Little Miss Sunshine has been described as ‘an American family road comedy that shatters the mould.’ In what ways does it conform to the conventions of the road comedy genre, and in what ways does it subvert them?
3. ‘I absolutely loved the script and also really loved this dysfunctional family who are just learning to get along for the first time. I got completely involved with them. Their frustrations and their yearnings felt very real to me and also quite universal. I found myself laughing and crying at the same time even as I read it.’ (Toni Collette)
How did you respond to the family? To what extent do you think their frustrations and yearnings are universal? Which members of the family did you particularly connect with? Why?
4. ‘Family means everything to Sheryl. So she feels that she would do absolutely anything to smooth things over and make everyone happy – whatever that might take.’ (Toni Collette) ‘We wanted to make a film not about family values, but about the value of family.’ (Valerie Faris)
What does Little Miss Sunshine have to say about the value of family? Is Sheryl right to do whatever it takes to make everyone happy? What does it take for families to work?
5. ‘There are two kinds of people in this world, winners and losers.’ (Richard) Is Richard right? Which category do the members of the Hoover family fit into? How do you see yourself?
6. ‘A real loser isn't someone who doesn't win. A real loser is someone so afraid of not winning they don't even try.’ (Grandpa) How is Grandpa’s definition of losers better than Richard’s? Do you think he is right? Why/why not?
7. What impact does Grandpa’s death have on the family? In what ways had he been both a positive and a negative influence on Olive?
8. How do the members of the family react when their dreams lie in ruins? What do they learn through these experiences
9. ‘Who is that? Nietzsche? So you stopped talking because of Friedrich Nietzsche? Far out.’ (Frank) ‘I think Dwayne's someone a lot of people will identify with right away. Everyone goes through a period where they don't really like their family, but you also know that you will always have some kind of bond with them. When you're fifteen, I think you start to lose your innocence and you see that these people around you are kind of crazy and you're not sure if you really want to participate in that, which is why Dwayne takes his vow of silence. But then when he finally cracks, when he's in his most vulnerable moment, his family is there for him and I think he's actually able to take that in.’ (Paul Dano)
What effect did Nietzsche’s thinking have on Dwayne? In what ways does he grow up during the journey?
10. How did you react to the Little Miss Sunshine contest – and especially to Olive’s performance? In what ways is this a satirical reflection on the nature of children’s beauty pageants and on parents’ expectations of their children?
11.. ‘You know what? F*** beauty contests. Life is one f****** beauty contest after another. School, then college, then work . . . F*** that. And f*** the Air Force Academy. If I want to fly, I'll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and f*** the rest.’ (Dwayne) To what extent is this a good perspective on life? What are the problems with it?
12. Dwayne: I wish I could just sleep until I was eighteen and skip all this crap – high school and everything – just skip it
Frank: You know Marcel Proust?
Dwayne: He's the guy you teach.
Frank: Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent twenty years writing a book almost no one reads. But he's also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, those were the best years of his life, because they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn't learn a thing. So, if you sleep until you're eighteen . . . Ah, think of the suffering you're going to miss. I mean high school? High school! Those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that."
What truth is there in what Frank says? How have the family as a whole discovered this during their trip?
13. ‘Every character in this story undergoes a major transformation – even the family's VW bus.’ (Producer Ron Yerxa) How does the VW bus serve to help draw the family together? In what ways is its steady disintegration a metaphor for what is happening within the family? How are the family members transformed? In what ways has Olive been the one who has brought peace?
Unattributed quotes from the film production notes
© Copyright: Tony Watkins 2007