Family – now that’s a bunch of people we are just given. We don’t choose them, but we spend most part of our life living, arguing and fighting with them. But despite all that, it doesn’t take much to realise how lucky we are to have a family. No matter how obnoxiously loud or dysfunctional it may be, it is the only thing we can count on.
Wind back your tape to 10 years, when the year 2006 saw the release of Little Miss Sunshine.
A movie that wasn’t and still isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. A black drama-comedy film that sheds light on a number of topics through the medium of a dysfunctional family on the verge of a breakdown. For people who have watched it and enjoyed the many snide remarks on things, this movie is so much more than just about a dysfunctional family. It taught us important lessons in the easiest way; through some downright narcissistic humour.
The characters in the movie are sketched to brilliance. The father, the mother, the grandfather, the suicidal brother, the nihilist son, and the innocent little miss sunshine who just wants to win a beauty pageant. But these people are just as close knit as your regular, not-so dysfunctional family.
All of us, at some point of time, have been like the son. We hated everyone, and all we wanted to do was to be left alone. Thank God, our family didn’t listen to us!
The movie taught us to be together, even if we don’t necessarily agree with each other. Because in the end, it’s just about being there for each other.
The beautiful chemistry between Olive and her grandfather shows that there will always be that one person in your family who’ll support you and your craziness.
It taught us that there’s no shame in being different, because even if no one gets you, your family will.
And if necessary, they’ll do whatever it takes to keep you from harm’s way.
It gave us our very first lesson in being body positive.
We got to learn the most important lesson through this movie. The lesson that it’s okay to not win in life. What matters is that you tried when most people would have given up.
This movie talked about depression and addiction without romanticising it even for a bit.
It taught us that your family will always come back for you, no matter how far you may be.
In all of this, it also managed to stealthily take a dig at beauty pageants as well. Isn’t this movie just brilliant?
Little Miss Sunshine is a movie above and beyond its years. It paints the picture of a typical dysfunctional family, but it never sugarcoats the problems that exist in it. Be it suicide or homosexuality, it calls it exactly for what it is. No one gives up on the other. They put aside their hate, anger, and their own problems when the situations require. Isn’t that what a family is all about? To be around when everyone else is gone, to fight for each other when the other has given up. This movie is worthy of a watch! If you haven’t, do give it a watch, and if you have, you know what it’s worth.