Little Miss Sunshine

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them."

- Desmond Tutu

In the Philippines, one of the important things in our life is our family. We have this saying that Blood is thicker than Water that is why sometimes we tend in being bias when it comes to our family.

Family is a group of people related to each other but let me correct that. Sometimes we thought that what we call family is really our family but then we are wrong. Why did I say that? Many of us see the family to others or experience having the family in an outer shell of our home. People tend to seek attention to other people because they cannot claim or gain that from their own family. The reasons are like being busy with their work, priorities in life, they don't care, members of the family don't know how to listen each other that creates another problem.

But because we care too much to our family sometimes we forget ourselves and we didn't even realize that we are doing the bad things because we only think about the sake of our family. Family first than others, they say. 

Every family has their own problems and they have solution in every problem that they face everyday. How to make a family strong when it comes in facing small to big problems? Simply, trust, love and respect  because if you love your family it is so easy to face those problems no matter how small or big it is if you know that someone loves you and willing to catch you from falling. Trust is very important in each person because if we don't have trust we cannot do things perfectly because we keep on thinking bad things to them and will create more problems. And respect, we all know that respect is very important to us also. We can gain respect if people will know that there is something inside of us. Because of respect, it somehow gives you the freedom to show everyone that you have something inside that you keep on hiding but you just can't show to them, afraid of being misunderstood by someone.

And in this movie, we can learn more about family and What should family is. Little Miss Sunshine will give you the idea on how we can appreciate life with our family and how we can change because of our family.

But before we tackle about this film, I will let you watch the trailer so that you will have an idea about it and we can share our thoughts after. (Disclaimer: I don't own this video.)

The cast of Little Miss Sunshine: Facing Left to Right

Alan Arkin - Grandpa Edwin Hoover

Steve Carell - Frank Ginsburg

Paul Dano - Dwayne Hoover

Abigail Breslin - Olive Hoover

Toni Collette - Sheryl Hoover

Greg Kinnear - Richard Hoover

Directed by: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris

Written by: Michael Arndt

Let's talk about Little Miss Sunshine, this is a typical kind of family movie wherein the members of the family has the different attitude to handle. The story revolves to a cute chubby child name Olive, she is the main character of the story.

It starts from a dream of a child becoming the Little Miss Sunshine. Olive is the regional winner of Little Miss Sunshine in their place because of that she got the chance to compete to other candidates who also won in their region. And this is the start of their adventure when his father decided to go to California and will take the crown and the title Little Miss Sunshine.

In their family, they have different kinds of attitude, personality and stories to share. First, the older brother of Olive, Dwayne, he totally knocks out all the people and never talk to anyone even his family. His way of communication is writing on a paper as if he is mute. Second, the father of Olive, Mr. Richard, the perfectionist and the fighter who keeps on asking "Are you a winner or loser?". Third, the mother of Olive, Mrs. Sheryl the peacemaker of the family and lastly, the old of the family, Grandpa. He is the cool guy of the family, the happy -  go - lucky guy who really takes good care of Olive the one who cheer up the child. Even though he is doing or acting silly things and we say malicious things he never fails being the grandpa of Olive.

Along their journey, they were able to solve the issues in their family and was able to correct the things and create a new one. Even though Grandpa saw dead in the morning life must go on because in the beginning their goal is to get that title and bring it home. But life is life and we have to go forward and accept things whether we like it or not.

In the movie I can really say that the Mise - en -scene applied naturally, excellent. The set design was great and you can really appreciate it every scene in the movie. Set designing is very important in the movie because it can affect the movie, you should really put in mind that it is related to the scene or it can give beauty or meaning. The characters in the movie fits to them, they really portray what should be the character is. The acting is not over reacted perfect and so funny. The make up and the costumes fits to their personalities with no ifs and buts.

I really appreciate the movie a lot not because it tackles the word family, but because the content itself or the story. The cast also did their job, a well acted, written and directed movie.

Thumbs up!

Here are some photos in the movie:

In this scene, they are talking about going to California for Little Miss Sunshine Pageant.

Clear the area because the Hoover family is coming!!! 

 The adventure to California starts, Little Miss Sunshine we are on our way.

This scene was so funny, Olive was showing her talent and all the people are having a hard time in appreciating the talent. But still her family stand and show their support for their big girl that she can do it even though people don't like it anymore.