Little Miss Sunshine: B+

It goes to sundance: get's both critical and commercial (got bought by Fox for 10.5 mil, the highest in history of Sundance) raves. Goes to the critics, they're divided. Some claim it's hackneyed approach outways any warmth or emotion it has to offer, others scream about the intelligence and heart. Now it gets a chance to enter our local multiplexes. This movie should have been subtitlled: Indie Movie Makeover: Family Comedy Addition. The film is basically a refurbished bit from all of those really really bad family-road comedies. Now we have a spectacular cast (with the likes of Greg Kinnear and Toni Collete involved) and both a prickly obeservant script and solid directing team. This movie follows a failing family across the country to a beauty pageant for their youngest member: Olive (Abigail Breslin) and in the process......heal. Sigh, we've all seen it before and I won't make any excuses for the well worn premise. What I will triumph is the acute observance of family life the writer Micheal Arndt put into his movie and the quirky little laughs every great indie (including his) should be (and is) chocked full of (kudos for the pedophile like pageant emcee gag) that still manage to pop up amidst the turmoil. What bothers me most is the unoriginality of the whole production. From character types to the general plot itself, plus the undercurrents of the movie get confused to often to discern much metaphoric meaning. But, and there always is one isn't there?, the whole of the family is engrossing and emotionally attachable with Steve Carrel being amazing as the gay/uncle/Praust scholar and Abigal Breslin turns in a spectacular scene-stealing tour de force of a performance as 7-year old Olive, imbuing her with both humanity and intelligence. The movie will make you buzz with happiness but you'll still be thinking: seen it all before. In the end though, that's fine with me.