When Frank (Steve Carell) moves in with his sister’s family, it’s clear that something terrible has happened. It’s the beginning of the movie. Everyone knows he has a problem, but nobody is willing to deal with it. Except Olive (Abigail Breslin), the seven-year-old daughter. A child has no filters when talking and trying to understand life. A child has no qualms about asking and responding simply and directly to life’s problems. And that is precisely why the tension reaches breaking point during dinner, providing an excellent way to introduce all the characters.

When Olive asks uncle Frank what happened to his wrist and he starts to explain the truth, encouraged by his sister, everyone in the family reacts in their own personal way: father Richard (Greg Kinnear) as a motivational speaker and life coach; son Dwayne (Paul Dano) says nothing, since he has taken a vow of silence in honour of Nietzsche; mother Sheryl (Toni Colette) responds with understanding and Grandpa (Alan Arkin) makes a cynical joke. Via this role play, we discover that Frank recently tried to commit suicide after losing both his boyfriend and his title as the best Proust academic in the world. We can all empathise with one – or more – of the members in this family.

Little Miss Sunshine is a great American comedy, the story of an atypical family and their absurd journey in a Volkswagen Type 2 to a beauty contest that Olive has qualified for in California.

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Olive (daughter): “Why were you unhappy?”

Frank (uncle): “Um, well, there are a lot of reasons. Mainly, though, I fell in love with someone who didn't love me back”

Olive (daughter): “Who?”

Frank (uncle): “One of my grad students. I was very much in love with him”

Olive (daughter): “Him? It was a boy? You fell in love with a boy?”

Frank (uncle): “Yes, I did. Very much so”

Olive (daughter): “That's silly”

Frank (uncle): “You're right. It was silly, it was very, very silly”

Grandpa: “There's another word for it”

Richard (father): “Dad”

Olive (daughter): “So, that's when you tried to kill yourself?”

Frank (uncle): “Well, no. The boy I was in love with fell in love with another man, Larry Sugarman”

Sheryl (mother): “Who's Larry Sugarman?”

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Frank (uncle): “Larry Sugarman, perhaps the second most highly regarded Proust scholar in the U.S.”

Richard (father): “Who's number one?”

Frank (uncle): “That's would be me, Rich”

Richard (father): “Really?”

Frank (uncle): “Mm-hmm”

Olive (daughter): “So, that's when”

Frank (uncle): “No. What happened was I was a bit upset, so I said some things that I shouldn't have said and I did some things that I shouldn't have done and subsequently I was fired from my job and forced to move out of my apartment and move into a motel”

Olive (daughter): “And that's when you tried to...”

Frank (uncle): “Well, no. Actually, all of that was okay. What happened was two days ago the MacArthur Foundation, in its infinite wisdom awarded a genius grant to Larry Sugarman. And that's when I...”

Grandpa: “Decided to check out early”

Frank (uncle): “Yes. Yes. And I failed at that as well”

Richard (father): “Olive, the important thing to understand here is that uncle Frank gave up on himself. He made a series of foolish choices. I'm sorry – and gave up on himself which is something winners never do”

Sheryl (mother): “So that's the story, okay? Now, everyone let's move on and...”

Frank (uncle): “Is he always like this? How can you stand it?”

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