Little Miss Sunshine Essay
Little Miss Sunshine – Essay
Little Miss Sunshine directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, is about a family whose cross country journey to the Little Miss Sunshine child beauty pageant teaches them, and the viewer, that real life is about relationships and that these are more important than simplistic notions of winning or losing. Richard Hoover is the character who most exemplifies this message as he eventually recognises that his family and life cannot be defined by his ‘Refuse to Lose’ motivational programme.
At the beginning of the movie we are shown an opening sequence introducing the main characters in the movie. We are briefly introduced to each character’s situation and the goals they are trying to achieve but we soon realise that they are failing to achieve their goals. Through this opening sequence the audience are introduced to the main theme ‘winning’ and ‘losing’. When we are introduced to Richard the camera shows a low angle close up of his face. This makes him look presidential and important. We are also introduced to the theme of ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ through Richard’s dialogue, “deep inside you is a winner waiting to be released”. We don’t see the setting but we imagine Richard to be talking at a very important press conference. At this point the audience perceives Richard to be a very important and successful person. As the camera zooms out we start to see the reality of things, the setting isn’t very impressive. There are wires running here and there, an old fashioned projector projecting an image onto a white screen and lots of shadow. This makes the setting and Richard look less professional. The lights flicker on and we see the true reality of Richard’s situation, he is at a community hall and there only a few very bored people listening to him, the camera then cuts to a mid-long shot of Richard looking disappointed. This scene shows the irony between Richard’s lecture and his current situation, he is lecturing about being a
Little Miss Sunshine directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, is about a family whose cross country journey to the Little Miss Sunshine child beauty pageant teaches them, and the viewer, that real life is about relationships and that these are more important than simplistic notions of winning or losing. Richard Hoover is the character who most exemplifies this message as he eventually recognises that his family and life cannot be defined by his ‘Refuse to Lose’ motivational programme.
At the beginning of the movie we are shown an opening sequence introducing the main characters in the movie. We are briefly introduced to each character’s situation and the goals they are trying to achieve but we soon realise that they are failing to achieve their goals. Through this opening sequence the audience are introduced to the main theme ‘winning’ and ‘losing’. When we are introduced to Richard the camera shows a low angle close up of his face. This makes him look presidential and important. We are also introduced to the theme of ‘winning’ and ‘losing’ through Richard’s dialogue, “deep inside you is a winner waiting to be released”. We don’t see the setting but we imagine Richard to be talking at a very important press conference. At this point the audience perceives Richard to be a very important and successful person. As the camera zooms out we start to see the reality of things, the setting isn’t very impressive. There are wires running here and there, an old fashioned projector projecting an image onto a white screen and lots of shadow. This makes the setting and Richard look less professional. The lights flicker on and we see the true reality of Richard’s situation, he is at a community hall and there only a few very bored people listening to him, the camera then cuts to a mid-long shot of Richard looking disappointed. This scene shows the irony between Richard’s lecture and his current situation, he is lecturing about being a