FILMBRATS - REVIEWS

Little Olive has a dream to become a beauty queen. She entered herself into a regional pageant not too long ago, and came in second. Well, it turns out that the winner is eventually disqualified, and now Olive has a spot in the state competition. The only thing that can possibly stop her is her grown up family that she must rely on to get her all the way to Redondo Beach, California. Normally, that would be all well and good, except this family is the definition of dysfunctional, as is their car.

And the movie is the definition of conventional indie flick. The characters are your random assortment of mentally tortured individuals struggling to come to terms or accomplish one very specific thing by the end of the movie mixed in with one wacky free spirited voice of reason. The daughter wants to feel attractive and thinks that winning the competition will help; the son has taken a vow of silence until he can join the air force; the uncle’s failed suicide attempt left him trying to find a meaning in life; the father is trying to get a self-help book published, but it’s easy to see why he’s unsuccessful so far; and the grandfather tells it like it is. They’re all pretty bland and one-dimensional when you get down to it.

It’s also pretty safe to assume that they’ll all have some sort of momentous confrontational moment where they finally have to come to grips with whatever it is that life is handing them. It’s quite the eventful little road trip. I don’t think it’s necessarily the subplot resolutions themselves I have trouble with, but rather that there are so many of them. Everything wraps up so nicely, like a sitcom, which is understandable, but also a little disappointing.

Aside from the beauty pageant itself (those little girls are so scary) the movie isn’t all that funny. They tend to focus so much on beating you over the head with all the emotional trauma and self-loathing of the characters that any attempt at humor is slightly hindered. Plus the jokes and situations aren’t all that great to begin with. It wouldn’t work nearly as much if it weren’t for the great cast. If this movie has one thing going for it, it’s the acting. Greg Kinnear (Dad Richard, “As Good as It Gets”) is a little over the top, but luckily we have the very talented young actress Abigail Breslin (Olive, “Signs”), the increasingly impressive Steve Carrell (Uncle Frank, “The 40 Year Old Virgin”), and the always amazing Alan Arkin (Grandpa Edwin, “Thirteen Conversations About One Thing”) to pick up his slack. They really help bring life to a pretty conventional script.

Essentially, this is “The Ice Storm” light. On the road. And not as good.

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