Ghost Town
Little Miss Sunshine
Robots
Stuck On You
Someone Like You
Mystery Men
You've Got Mail
As Good As It Gets
Sabrina
Since I'm sure you didn't click on that link, I feel it important to let you know that those eight films come from a 49 title body of work that is really pretty impressive. Which is to say that my impression of his career may not be at all accurate. But the impression that I've gotten from Greg Kinnear is that, when he's not playing a little bit of a jerk: Sabrina, You've Got Mail, Ghost Town, Little Miss Sunshine, Someone Like You, Mystery Men, Robots...dang...I never realized how he's a bit of a jerk in, like, virtually ever movie I've ever seen him in...anyway, when he isn't playing that character he is playing really nice guys who gets a bit taken advantage of. A little like James Marsden (I was so happy to see him finally get the girl in 27 Dresses...finally he got to play someone other than the nice guy who gets screwed!).
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| Look at him...bein' so nice! |
If you haven't seen the movie then I guess....spoilers? It's not really a film you can spoil, but whatever. I'll put a break and you can make your choices...
So the film is about the Hoover family, which consists of Greg Kinnear as Richard Hoover, a budding entrepreneur trying to sell a self-help program he has written himself. Toni Collette is his wife, Sheryl Hoover, who hides her nervous smoking habit as she balances being a mother and working to support Richard in his efforts. Dwayne, played by Paul Dano, is Sheryl's son from a previous marriage and has taken a vow of silence until he gets accepted to flight school to become a fighter pilot. Steve Carell, in one of his first bigger roles, is Sheryl's gay brother Frank, a former Proust professor, who has just been released from the hospital after a suicide attempt and has nowhere else to stay. Alan Arkin plays Richard's father Edwin, an incredibly profane and irreverent old man who has just been kicked out of a retirement community for snorting crack. And last of all is Olive Hoover, as played by Abigail Breslin in her first ever movie, the daughter of Richard and Sheryl and an aspiring beauty queen.
I was discussing this movie with my mom yesterday and she told me that one of her favorite scenes is the moment when Olive finds out she's been bumped up to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in California. Abigail Breslin does a fanfriggintastic job being authentically excited out of her head. She screams and runs to her bedroom to pack, shouting "I won I won I won I won I won!!!!!" over and over. She has little to no idea what anyone else is doing or thinking. She doesn't know that as she runs out of the room her parents are left trying to figure out how on earth to make this happen. Richard is waiting for a call about his program and wants to stay close to home but Sheryl can't drive a stick shift, Frank can't be left alone and Dwayne is too young to be left responsible for him, Grampa is her coach and wants to go... All Olive knows is that when she comes out of her bedroom with her things all packed her entire family is coming with her to California. As we talked about it I realized that mom is right, that is a great scene. It subtly sets the tone for the rest of the movie.
And the rest of the
movie is one great elaboration on the simple theme that life sucks. Life
sucks and you will learn that sad fact eventually....but we will all come
together to try and shield you from the truth as long as possible.
But really. In the
course of that movie you have the complete disintegration of the life of every
single person. Richard's deal falls through and he's left with nothing.
Frank loses every single thing he wants most in his life. Sheryl is
forced to accept that her husband might have screwed them all over.
Dwayne's one wish to become a pilot is shattered when he finds out he's
colorblind. The grandfather freaking dies! At some point or another
they are all faced with the realization that their lives have gone all to hell
and they are crushed. The most poignant, to me at least, is the image of
Dwayne silently thrashing in the back of the van because he has no way to
express his rage. As it finally stops he bursts out, runs down the hill
and screams out his first word in the entire film, the only word that can
really capture all the rage and disappointment and frustration he feels.
He screams it out and then begs them to leave him there, he can't stand
to be around any of them any more. His mother doesn't know what to do...
And then Olive carefully
picks her way down the hill, in her red shirt and chucks. She walks to
him, and just leans against his shoulder...
Olive.
Olive is the only
character who has not yet learned this sad truth about life and how much it
sucks. Olive is in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Olive is going
to win. Olive doesn't realize that her and her little tummy don't look
like the other contestants. Olive doesn't understand that getting to
California is a huge problem. Olive is still innocent.
After Dwayne screams his
rage at the world and his family and God he pulls it together and helps Olive
back up the hill so they can get to her pageant. After Frank sees the man
he loved drive away with the man he hates most he gets back in the car so Olive
can go compete. After Richard drives a scooter all night only to be told
that no one cares about his program and he's a failure, he gets up the next
morning to drive Olive to California. When the grandfather dies, they steal the body from the hospital so that they can get to this stupid pageant for
Olive.
And when they get there
and they all see exactly what this thing is, what these little girls are like,
and after they all try to save Olive from going up there and being laughed at...and
they can't do it...they all set aside their problems and pride and
embarrassment and go up to be laughed at with her. All so that Olive, for
just a little while longer, doesn't have to bear the immense weight of
knowledge. She doesn't have to live in a world that sucks. It is
one of the most perfect movie moments I've ever seen, when all of them are up
on stage dancing with her It is, on the one hand, purely funny. Funny in
the most beautiful, innocent way you can imagine. But layered under the
humor is the awareness you the viewer have of exactly what these people have
gone through to get to this point, and exactly what this means to them all.
Truly, the moment is hysterical--in that it is unbelievably funny, but
also tragic and beautiful and painful all at once and you're almost overwhelmed
with disparate emotions.
Perhaps I felt more
connected to the movie on this viewing because I've recently had the feeling
that my life is on the verge of falling apart. I feel it trembling on the
tips of my fingers and I'm not sure if I can hold it all together. I feel
like I'm constantly trying to repress a simmering panic attack about my life.
This movie struck a chord with that sublimated panic. It brought it
out in the open and proved that, even when it all goes to hell, you can still
keep going.
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