Saw Little Miss Sunshine last night. So now it’s 4/15 major nominations, 7/45 nominations of any length film.
I am rocking this.
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So, what did you think?
If I’m feeling ambitious Sunday night, my Monday Movie Review will be a recap of all the nominees I’ve seen.
The short version is I liked it very much, but I suspect I felt differently about it than other people do. I found it very sad. Not laugh out loud (except here & there), more quietly funny. These people have sad lives and they’re kind of pathetic. I wonder if the whole world finding this movie delightful is mean-spirited and they’re not seeing the sorrow.
I can only speak for me, but having grown up in my own version of a dysfunctional family (not this dysfunctional, I grant you), I sympathize and that was a big part of why I found it falling down, tears streaming out of my eyes, funny.
My own version of the teenage son’s vow of silence was to become born again (or, at least, it can be viewed from that perspective; I don’t know that I did that primarly as a form of rebellion or protest).
My parents are nothing like the ones portrayed, but dysfunction is dysfunction. There are ways in which my mom bears a spooky resemblance to Mary Tyler Moore’s character in Ordinary People, even though people never notice it right away.
I’ve never been a Charlie Chaplin fan, but don’t those who lionize his work point out that it’s almost always funny in part because it’s sad and evokes sympathy?
I see your point. As I said, because I saw it alone on DVD, without an audience, I’m not sure what the response “out there” was. I loved these sad people, and I loved the texture of their interaction. My favorite character was certainly the silent teen, who was so wonderfully real. I just wonder if there’s an audience out there who thinks it’s the greatest thing ever because they’re laughing at the silly people, rather than feeling how sad they are. Certainly I’ve taken movies seriously in the past, only to find that others saw them as comedies. A failing of mine? Who knows.
It’s entirely possible. For myself I think maybe Alan Arkin was my favorite character. The concept of becoming a heroin addict at an advanced age specifically because there was no reason not to just struck me very, very funny……..
The teenager was wonderful, and I especially loved the talk his uncle had with him on the pier near the end of the movie. I can so see myself doing something like that (because I frequently do stuff just like that, except I’ve never read Proust)!
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