LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

I haven't posted many reviews of movies or books lately. I've seen and read a few, but nothing really grabbed me enough to post. But last weekend I finally got out and saw Little Miss Sunshine. I still remember seeing the trailer for the first time and thinking, "I have GOT to see this!"

So, last weekend we saw it. I can't say it was perfect, but it was really damn good. It was funny and sad and cringey and poignant. I felt it cheated a little at the end, but overall I loved it. The acting was really good as a whole, but Abigail Breslin and Adam Arkin deserve major awards as the little girl and her grandpa.

The story is about a dysfunctional family on road trip to enter the daughter into a beauty contest. But the theme is about how pain and suffering make us who we are. That sounds a bit pretentious, but it doesn't feel that way in the movie.

I don't "like" Greg Kinnear. That is, I won't get excited about a project he's in just because he's in it. That said, I think he's an excellent actor and thought he did a great job in this one. I also recently saw him in The Matador, which, dispite its universal accolades, failed to entertain me. Greg was very good in it, but I didn't care for the movie at all.

One book I read recently and liked a lot was THE STOLEN CHILD by Keith Donohue. It was the story of a child who was abducted by forest gnomes and replaced with one of the gnomes who took the shape of the child. The novel then follows the growth of a gnome, living as a human and a child, living in the forest but forever doomed to remain a child until he trades with a human. It's a fantasy story on the surface, but underneath it explores the way that grown ups long to be children and children long to be grown ups. It was a very moving book and I recommend it highly to any and all.