Une famille à la dérive sur la route du rêve
Little Miss Sunshine s’ouvre comme un simple road movie : une fillette, Olive, rêve de participer à un concours de beauté.
Mais pour la famille Hoover, ce voyage va devenir un chemin d’éveil collectif.
Chacun porte sa propre fissure :
- un père obsédé par la réussite,
- une mère qui s’épuise à sauver les apparences,
- un frère mutique en crise existentielle,
- un grand-père marginal,
- un oncle brisé par la vie,
- et au milieu d’eux — Olive, petite lueur d’espoir dans un monde qui confond bonheur et performance.
Le rire comme antidote à la défaite
Le film repose sur une idée simple et puissante : échouer ensemble vaut mieux que réussir seul.
Sur la route poussiéreuse de l’Amérique, la famille Hoover se découvre dans le chaos.
Les disputes, les pannes, les silences deviennent autant d’occasions de réapprendre à s’aimer.
Sous la comédie, c’est une tragi-farce humaniste : celle de la survie émotionnelle dans une société obsédée par le succès.
“Dans la vie, on n’est pas toujours gagnant. Mais y aller, c’est déjà gagner un peu.”
Un miroir de nos fragilités
Chaque personnage incarne une facette de la fragilité humaine :
- Greg Kinnear, père rationnel et maladroit, illustre la tyrannie de la réussite.
- Toni Collette, mère épuisée mais aimante, tient la cellule à bout de bras.
- Steve Carell, bouleversant dans un contre-emploi dramatique, rappelle que la dépression peut frapper les plus lucides.
- Paul Dano, adolescent en rupture, fait du silence un cri.
- Alan Arkin, grand-père tendre et provocateur, redonne de la vie à la folie.
- Et Abigail Breslin, magnifique Olive, nous ramène à l’enfance pure — celle qui ose être sincère dans un monde de faux-semblants.
Une poésie de la route
Le van jaune Volkswagen devient le symbole d’une tribu cabossée mais tenace.
Il tombe en panne, redémarre en côte, vacille dans le bruit du moteur : une métaphore du corps familial.
La musique de DeVotchKa, mélancolique et solaire, accompagne le film comme une respiration : guitares folk, rythmes légers, émotion à fleur de peau.
Chaque note semble dire : continue à avancer, même si le monde te regarde de travers.
La beauté du ratage
La scène finale du concours de beauté reste l’un des moments les plus puissants du cinéma des années 2000 : Olive, avec son numéro maladroit et touchant, brise la mascarade du conformisme.
Sa famille, réunie autour d’elle, monte sur scène pour danser — non pas pour gagner, mais pour revendiquer le droit d’être soi.
C’est toute la beauté du film : célébrer les perdants magnifiques, les rêveurs écorchés, ceux qui avancent malgré tout.
Un casting d’orfèvres
- Greg Kinnear : père dépassé par ses certitudes.
- Toni Collette : cœur battant du film, entre courage et désarroi.
- Steve Carell : bouleversant dans sa retenue.
- Abigail Breslin : solaire, naturelle, inoubliable.
- Alan Arkin : oscarisé pour un rôle d’iconoclaste au grand cœur.
Chacun livre une leçon d’humilité, une sincérité rare dans le cinéma américain contemporain.
Verdict
Note : 10/10
Une comédie lumineuse et intelligente, tendre et cruelle à la fois.
Little Miss Sunshine rappelle que l’échec est une forme de victoire quand il nous ramène à l’essentiel : l’amour, la famille, et le droit d’être imparfait.
Un classique moderne, toujours aussi nécessaire.
Pourquoi voir Little Miss Sunshine ?
- Pour sa sincérité désarmante.
- Pour son humour doux-amer et sa tendresse universelle.
- Pour la performance d’Abigail Breslin, cœur du film.
- Parce que c’est un antidote à la morosité et un hymne à l’imperfection.
Little Miss Sunshine
Slogan:
« Where's Olive? »
Acteurs:
Olive
Richard Hoover
Dwayne
Edwin Hoover
Sheryl
Frank
Doctor #1
Cindy
Diner Waitress
Mechanic
Scénariste:
written by
Gaffes:
continuité: When at the motel, Sheryl reads off the three room numbers they are staying in as 11, 12, and 13. When Grandpa and Olive go into their room and shut the door, though, the number reads 208.
continuité: When Olive and her mom are in the dressing room, we see one little girl wearing a 2-piece suit walking in the background. A few seconds later, the same little girl is walking outside in the hallway in front of Dwayne, wearing a dress.
continuité: In the first dinner scene where the family is eating chicken, Sheryl pours Dwayne some Sprite. Later when the shot shows the whole table, the bottle is completely full.
erreur factuelle: A bad clutch could not be overcome to jump start the way they do it. The engine would turn over whenever they pushed the vehicle, causing too much resistance to get the vehicle going. They'd still need to disengage a clutch to push the van, accelerate to starting speed, then pop the clutch to turn over the engine. That's what they appeared to do in the film. If it had a bad starter, one could use the technique in the film.
erreur factuelle: The inability to shift is usually not a symptom of a bad clutch. It is possible to shift without depressing the pedal, so having a bad clutch wouldn't make moving the shifter any more difficult.
erreur révélatrice: While driving down highway, at one point police car escort can be seen out the back window of the van.
erreur révélatrice: When Dwayne and Frank are going to bed and Dwayne writes "welcome to hell" on his notepad, his writing motions only spell out "welcome to" and then he flashes the notepad to Frank.
erreur révélatrice: When Richard is explaining how he sold his idea to Stan Grossman, Frank is being sarcastic. When those two are going back and forth, you can see through the front window that the van is on the access road instead of the highway. You can see the stop sign approaching which wouldn't be on the highway.
anachronisme: When Frank turns the TV on in the motel to try and prevent Dwayne listening to his parents arguing in the next room, President George W. Bush is shown on the TV making a speech. The clip in question is all taken from one sentence of an August 24th, 2001 speech announcing the nomination of Air Force General Richard Myers for the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The clip starts in the middle of the sentence, but as camera angles change it jumps first back to the start of the sentence, and then to almost the end of the sentence. To add further confusion, while this clip suggests the film to be set in 2001, near the end of the movie we see a New York Times Book Review cover listing a June 2005 article, "The Passions of Robert Lowell" - making it unusual for an almost four year old speech to be on television.
erreur géographique: The family spends the night in Scottsdale, yet they state that they only have 200 miles to go to get to Redondo Beach. Redondo Beach is nearly 400 miles west of Scottsdale.
erreur géographique: The movie ends with the Hoovers driving into the sunset back to New Mexico. However, the sun sets in the West, and New Mexico is east of LA
erreur géographique: The takeout chicken served for dinner at the house in Albuquerque is from Dinah's Fried Chicken. Dinah's only has restaurants in Southern California.
trou dans l’intrigue: The uneven participation of the girls during the pageant makes no sense; they seem to mix and match various girls, but all of them do not seem to be present at all events. For instance you never see the first two girls presented on stage again for the remainder of the program. The host says there are twelve girls in the competition, but after the initial introduction, the catwalk routine, you see only six girls in a row on stage, all about the same age/height. They start on one end, and after only two girls' participation, they jump immediately to Olive on the opposite end. Seconds later, after Olive finishes, you see all twelve contestants on stage. During the talent competition, we see new girls never initially shown at the introduction. And why are so many girls, non-participants, dressed up as though ready to compete, in the audience?
continuité: When at the motel, Sheryl reads off the three room numbers they are staying in as 11, 12, and 13. When Grandpa and Olive go into their room and shut the door, though, the number reads 208.
continuité: When Olive and her mom are in the dressing room, we see one little girl wearing a 2-piece suit walking in the background. A few seconds later, the same little girl is walking outside in the hallway in front of Dwayne, wearing a dress.
continuité: In the first dinner scene where the family is eating chicken, Sheryl pours Dwayne some Sprite. Later when the shot shows the whole table, the bottle is completely full.
erreur factuelle: A bad clutch could not be overcome to jump start the way they do it. The engine would turn over whenever they pushed the vehicle, causing too much resistance to get the vehicle going. They'd still need to disengage a clutch to push the van, accelerate to starting speed, then pop the clutch to turn over the engine. That's what they appeared to do in the film. If it had a bad starter, one could use the technique in the film.
erreur factuelle: The inability to shift is usually not a symptom of a bad clutch. It is possible to shift without depressing the pedal, so having a bad clutch wouldn't make moving the shifter any more difficult.
erreur révélatrice: While driving down highway, at one point police car escort can be seen out the back window of the van.
erreur révélatrice: When Dwayne and Frank are going to bed and Dwayne writes "welcome to hell" on his notepad, his writing motions only spell out "welcome to" and then he flashes the notepad to Frank.
erreur révélatrice: When Richard is explaining how he sold his idea to Stan Grossman, Frank is being sarcastic. When those two are going back and forth, you can see through the front window that the van is on the access road instead of the highway. You can see the stop sign approaching which wouldn't be on the highway.
anachronisme: When Frank turns the TV on in the motel to try and prevent Dwayne listening to his parents arguing in the next room, President George W. Bush is shown on the TV making a speech. The clip in question is all taken from one sentence of an August 24th, 2001 speech announcing the nomination of Air Force General Richard Myers for the chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The clip starts in the middle of the sentence, but as camera angles change it jumps first back to the start of the sentence, and then to almost the end of the sentence. To add further confusion, while this clip suggests the film to be set in 2001, near the end of the movie we see a New York Times Book Review cover listing a June 2005 article, "The Passions of Robert Lowell" - making it unusual for an almost four year old speech to be on television.
erreur géographique: The family spends the night in Scottsdale, yet they state that they only have 200 miles to go to get to Redondo Beach. Redondo Beach is nearly 400 miles west of Scottsdale.
erreur géographique: The movie ends with the Hoovers driving into the sunset back to New Mexico. However, the sun sets in the West, and New Mexico is east of LA
erreur géographique: The takeout chicken served for dinner at the house in Albuquerque is from Dinah's Fried Chicken. Dinah's only has restaurants in Southern California.
trou dans l’intrigue: The uneven participation of the girls during the pageant makes no sense; they seem to mix and match various girls, but all of them do not seem to be present at all events. For instance you never see the first two girls presented on stage again for the remainder of the program. The host says there are twelve girls in the competition, but after the initial introduction, the catwalk routine, you see only six girls in a row on stage, all about the same age/height. They start on one end, and after only two girls' participation, they jump immediately to Olive on the opposite end. Seconds later, after Olive finishes, you see all twelve contestants on stage. During the talent competition, we see new girls never initially shown at the introduction. And why are so many girls, non-participants, dressed up as though ready to compete, in the audience?
Intrigues:
A family determined to get their young daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant take a cross-country trip in their VW bus.
When 7 year-old Olive Hoover learns that she's qualified for the the little Miss Sunshine contest the entire family sets off in their VW camper van for the trip from Albuquerque to California. The family includes her reasonably sane mother Sheryl; her father Richard, a motivational speaker who is stressing over whether his book will be published; her brother Dwayne who is into Nietzsche and has taken a vow of silence and hasn't said a word in 9 months; her grandpa Edwin Hoover who likes to cuss; and her uncle Frank Ginsburg - Sheryl's brother - who recently tried to commit suicide. Along the way, the van breaks down, Richard learns his book won't be published and they forget Olive at a gas station. They face grief along the way but they get Olive to the pageant on time - even if the pageant itself doesn't quite go as planned.
More than anything, 7-year-old Olive Hoover wants to be a beauty queen. When she qualifies for the prestigious Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest, the entire family embarks on a long road trip from Albuquerque to California in their 1978 Volkswagen Station Wagon Type 2. However, the journey is anything but smooth. As Sheryl, Olive's overworked mother, struggles to be the voice of reason, Richard, her unsuccessful husband, tries to promote his self-help program. To further complicate matters, Dwayne, Sheryl's son from a previous marriage, has decided not to utter a word until he joins the Air Force Academy. At least, troubled Uncle Frank just tags along. And on the road to success, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. What has the future in store for Olive? Does she stand a chance of fulfilling her dream?
When 7 year-old Olive Hoover learns that she's qualified for the the little Miss Sunshine contest the entire family sets off in their VW camper van for the trip from Albuquerque to California. The family includes her reasonably sane mother Sheryl; her father Richard, a motivational speaker who is stressing over whether his book will be published; her brother Dwayne who is into Nietzsche and has taken a vow of silence and hasn't said a word in 9 months; her grandpa Edwin Hoover who likes to cuss; and her uncle Frank Ginsburg - Sheryl's brother - who recently tried to commit suicide. Along the way, the van breaks down, Richard learns his book won't be published and they forget Olive at a gas station. They face grief along the way but they get Olive to the pageant on time - even if the pageant itself doesn't quite go as planned.
More than anything, 7-year-old Olive Hoover wants to be a beauty queen. When she qualifies for the prestigious Little Miss Sunshine beauty contest, the entire family embarks on a long road trip from Albuquerque to California in their 1978 Volkswagen Station Wagon Type 2. However, the journey is anything but smooth. As Sheryl, Olive's overworked mother, struggles to be the voice of reason, Richard, her unsuccessful husband, tries to promote his self-help program. To further complicate matters, Dwayne, Sheryl's son from a previous marriage, has decided not to utter a word until he joins the Air Force Academy. At least, troubled Uncle Frank just tags along. And on the road to success, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. What has the future in store for Olive? Does she stand a chance of fulfilling her dream?
Films liés:
Mentionné dans: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby/Little Miss Sunshine/Shadowboxer/Miami Vice/The Night Listener (Clips shown for the review.) , World Trade Center/Step Up/Scoop/Half Nelson (A clip is shown during the "Now in Theaters" segment.) , Rocky Balboa/The Good German/Letters from Iwo Jima/The Pursuit of Happyness/Breaking and Entering/Home of the Brave (A clip is shown during the New on Video segment.)
Mentionné dans: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby/Little Miss Sunshine/Shadowboxer/Miami Vice/The Night Listener (Clips shown for the review.) , World Trade Center/Step Up/Scoop/Half Nelson (A clip is shown during the "Now in Theaters" segment.) , Rocky Balboa/The Good German/Letters from Iwo Jima/The Pursuit of Happyness/Breaking and Entering/Home of the Brave (A clip is shown during the New on Video segment.)
