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Little Miss Sunshine helps us find the rays of family weirdness in all of us
- By Caiti Barski
- Trail Staff Writer
- Last Sunday afternoon I was happy, snuggled under my fleece blankets and just nodding off into the depth of sleep when that ever-present knock sounded at my door. It was more of a loud bang followed with a flick of the light switch to the on position and a loud voice.
“Come on Caiti, let’s go,” my mom’s voice commanded. “I know you’re awake and we are going to Cody AS A FAMILY to watch a movie.”
“As a family,” of course was her way of saying we are going to spend time together and you better shut up and enjoy it damn it.
I came up with a billion excuses not to go. My mom raved and ranted, and then my sister joined in. I was told how I hated my family, never wanted to spend time with them, was too busy doing what I wanted and didn’t consider their feelings.
I know I’m not the only teenager to hear this life-long spiel because my friends and I have related these talks with one another multiple times.
Guilt gave in right around the point where my mother stated, “You are going to look back and realize you don’t have a family that is there for you anymore because they have given up.” All because I didn’t go to one Sunday matinee? I thought. Ah hell, I put on my shoes and trudged to the car.
My sister and mom went to the 2 o’clock showing of Material Girls and my dad and I decided that Little Miss Sunshine, a highly-credited independent film, would be the movie of the day.
Little did I know that upon entering that dimly lit theatre with sticky floors, I would receive a new outlook on life.
A girl named Olive who was to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant in California. Her brother Duane (who didn’t talk half of the movie because he took a vow of silence for no apparent reason), a father whose life philosophy was win at everything because no one likes losers, a foul-mouthed, heroin addict grandpa who cherished Olive and prepared her for the pageant, a suicidal, gay uncle and a mother who tried to keep the family functioning, made up the characters in this witty film.
Little Miss Sunshine documented the family as they made their way from their home in Albuquerque, New Mexico to California for Olive’s pageant. The family makes the trip in a beat up V.W. bus and encounters hilarious situations as well as tear-jerking moments along the way.
Halfway through the movie I thought, this family is completely dysfunctional and has no chance of changing. By the end of the movie I realized that some of the dysfunction caused for change and some of the dysfunction was normalcy.
I recounted the film and discovered that Little Miss Sunshine’s family and mine weren’t that dissimilar. Just like Olive’s family got on the stage with her at the end of the pageant, I could see my family busting crazy groove moves to “Super Freak” to cheer me on.
I also knew that if we ever had to steal a family member’s body from the hospital to make sure everything went according to schedule, you’d better believe my mom and dad would shove it through the window and into the back of our car.
The movie made me realize you can’t change who you are related to, nor should you try. As crazy and hard headed as they may be, your family will tell you the truth when it hurts, dry your tears when somebody else hurts you and maybe hurt the person that made you cry.
Family ties may bind and gag, but they are also the ones that make you the person you are today.
- Trail Staff Writer