Little Miss Sunshine is a film about a dysfunctional and destitute family’s journey to a beauty pageant for their youngest daughter. Along the way, the various members of the family eventually come to terms with their differences and settle their various disputes. The screenplay was written by Michael Arndt, and resulted in an Academy Award winning movie. One of the biggest themes of the screenplay is the reparation of past differences between the many characters. Each of the characters in the Hoover family has their own problems, many of which are related to other family members. For example, when Frank asks Dwayne jokingly if he has a girlfriend, Dwayne responds by giving him a note that says, “I hate everyone.” These conflicts continue to escalate to a fever pitch until each of the family members comes to a realization about their beliefs and dreams. Richard understands that life is not as simple as winning and losing, while Dwayne, despite being pronounced colourblind, endeavors to continue pursuing his dream of flying. Arndt does a wonderful job of giving voice to the feelings of the Hoover family. He also has a great sense of sarcasm and uses this to great effect in order to create humour. It is, however, his mastery of character conflict and resolution that I hope to use in my own screenplay. This sort of conflict drives the narrative of screenplays forward and draws the audience into the world the writer has created.
Arndt leaves his characters’ backgrounds deliberately vague, which I believe might work against him. After reading about just how dysfunctional the Hoover family is, I think that there might be a general desire among readers to learn how they became this way. While we can glean small parts of their history from implied statements, many of the details of the Hoover family’s history are left out of the screenplay.
There is a certain vagueness about Little Miss Sunshine that leaves you wanting to know more about the characters, but ultimately the strong writing and changing relationships of the many characters succeed in grasping your attention. You want them to solve their differences and reconcile themselves with other members of the family. This creative, yet poignant plot makes Little Miss Sunshine an excellent screenplay to emulate.
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