A Roadtrip with Lovable Losers

Last night we went to the big city, big Northampton, for dinner and a movie. It was time we had a proper date; so it was Thai food and “Little Miss Sunshine” at Pleasant St. The streets were packed on this warm summer night, it made us glad we bought the tickets before hand.

The film was wonderful; a tale of a road trip to a beauty pageant with an odd cast of characters, each in their own way failures who muddle through life: Greg Kennear was the guy with the Big Idea, his 9 Steps to Success, a homegrown Tony Robbins, but nobody listened and nobody wanted to buy. Duane, his 16-year-old son, dreams of flying jets but has taken a vow of silence, so only scribbles thoughts on a pad…such as “I hate everybody,” and “go hug mom.” Then there is Uncle Larry, a gay professor who’s been rejected by a lover and now suicidal contemplating the greatness of a rival Proust scholar…and grandpa, sitting in the back seat of the VW bus cursing and talking about sexual conquests.

The journey is made more fun by a clutch problem, forcing this band of misfits to jumpstart and then all run to jump into the moving VW bus, every time they have to stop. The film destroys the beauty pageant culture, and provides us with five characters who all fail…but try eloquently, and struggle, and leaves us all satisfied and empathic over theirs and our human condition.