In Albuquerque, chain-smoking housewife Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette) brings her suicidal brother Frank Ginsberg (Steve Carell) into her dysfunctional and bankrupt family. Frank is a gay professor, an expert on Proust, and tried to commit suicide when he was rejected by his graduate student boyfriend who was in love with another man. Sheryl's husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a motivational speaker trying to sell his self-improvement technique using nine steps to reach success, but he is actually a complete loser. Her son Dwayne (Paul Dano) is a rebel and follower of Nietzsche who has vowed not to speak until he gets into the Air Force. It has been 9 months since he's talked. Dwayne's grandfather Edwin (Alan Arkin) is addicted to heroin and was sent away from "Sunset Manor", an old folks home. When her seven years old daughter Olive (Abigail Breslin) has a chance to enter the "Little Miss Sunshine" pageant in Redondo Beach, California, the whole family travels together in their Volkswagen van in an amusing journey of hope to make Olive's dream come true.
The film begins with Olive watching a taped beauty pageant, where the winner is shocked to hear that she won. Olive mimics the winner's shocked expression. The Hoovers drive off for California and have many adventures. Grandpa dies, but they take his corpse along in the van. Olive gets to meet Miss California, who autographs a picture of herself. At the pageant Olive does a hilarious striptease dance to the song "Superfreak", which outrages many in attendance, especially Pageant Official Jenkins (Beth Grant). Olive is forever banned from entering beauty pageants in California. Even though she was disqualified and didn't win the "Little Miss Sunshine" contest, her family congratulates her on her performance. They drive off towards the security gate, where Jenkins is waiting to pass through the security bar. The Hoovers exit through the wrong way, driving through the security bar while Jenkins looks at them shocked.
This dark comedy about a quirky, dysfunctional family is quite funny. These people drive each other crazy, don't communicate very well, but they do love each other. Music was composed by Mychael Dana and DeVotchka. Michael Arndt wrote the screenplay, and the film was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.
