Little Miss Sunshine - Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris

“Little Miss Sunshine"

Dwayne’s Breakdown Scene

Keith Conly

4/27/2007

Introduction to Film:

Dr. Soon

Little Miss Sunshine (2006) was directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and is an American road-comedy that shatters the mold. Incredibly satirical and ironic yet, is how deeply human as the Hover family is one of the most endearing in recent film history. The film has a fabulous beginning in which you meet each Hoover individually, pointing out their great differences, during their personal moments through a series of montage shots. The daughter Olive inches away from the television screen intently reviewing pervious Miss America winners, the drug-addicted grandfather in the bathroom snorting heroine, the father out pitching a sub-par motivational speech about winning because he himself has yet to feel it, Mrs. Hoover on her way to pick up her suicidal brother from the hospital, and the son, Dwayne, buried deep into the readings and teachings of Friedrich Nietzsche.

The son, Dwayne, is overstepped several times throughout the film by his family members. Differing intensely from his relations, Dwayne has also taken a vow of silence, which clearly limits his ability to articulate his feelings. Since he chooses not to speak, it makes it very easy on the family to manipulate Dwayne into doing various things he does not wish to do, such as, go all the way to California to support his younger sister Olive in the Little Miss Sunshine competition. Dwayne has taken his vow of silence because the plight of his family will ultimately hold him back from reaching his personal dreams of one day attending flight school (Nietzsche 1).

Dwayne’s character to the viewer is seemingly fully developed. Dwayne experiences conflict in achieving his dramatic need, interacts with other characters, and interacts with himself (Character 26). Since the family is constantly together and bound to the bus, Dwayne accomplishes all of these traits because he knows himself enough to have a goal worth being silent for. Even though Dwayne on the surface appears to know himself inside and out, he does not. Dwayne learns after his grandfather dies of a drug overdose that is colorblind from a sample eye exam Olive took from the hospital. Attempting to lighten the mood of the already depressing bus ride, Olive administers the same exam to her uncle and then back to Dwayne revealing the terrible news. Being colorblind is a huge blow as it will inhibit the progression of accomplishing his dream of one day becoming a pilot. Dwayne almost instantly, throws a tantrum filled with anguish and frustration. He continues to beat the windows, ceilings, and seats as his face and mannerisms expresses the bitterness he feels because he still does not say a word. The family bus than comes to a stop along the interstate.

After running a few hundred feet from the bus, Dwayne collapses. On his hands and knees, shaking, and crying, he throws back his head and releases a high pitched expletive. The foundation of Dwayne’s world has come crashing down. Everything he had worked for ceased to be and became the impossible. The cinematographer uses a low angle shot here that dwarfs the family and the bus in the background leaving Dwayne’s twisted body to dominate the screen. For the majority of the film Dwayne had been a side character dragged along because of inability to speak, but now the entire spotlight is on him. The camera angle allows for the focus to be on solely on Dwayne’s emotions as he sits and weeps with his family still in the distance.

The mother then approaches Dwayne but only for him to explode with rage. He begins to express his hatred for them strongly noting the family’s major problems: future divorce, bankruptcy, and suicide attempts. The mise-en-scene is important here. The frame is left open so it does not appear that Dwayne is still enclosed into the family; he has broken himself apart. The territorial space of the two actors is also note worthy because although the two are talking they are so far apart; again symbolizing the distance he had put himself from the others.

The conversation that is talking place is also not shot using shot reverse shot. This is because Dwayne is not talking to just his mother, he addresses the whole family as he unleashes all the temper that had been kept inside for this long period of time. Close-ups are also not used. They are simply not necessary because you do not need to see Dwayne’s facial expression, you can already feel the hatred that is