PERFORMANCE PERSPECTIVES
"Little Miss Sunshine"
TRUE
BEAUTY IS IN THE SKILL
An entertaining experience is a joyous thing.
| “Little Miss Sunshine” is a delightfully entertaining experience. |
It is entertaining because –
- It is a story about real people experiencing real difficulties
- It is a somewhat ‘off-the-wall’ situation
- It is optimistic because its characters do successfully change
- The performances are so believable we are always engaged with the drama
- We laugh at choices the characters make
This is a character driven story. It depends for the power of its story-telling on our engagement with the characters their dilemmas and their choices. So, the actor’s work is pivotal. “Little Miss Sunshine” story involves a 7-year-old girl who wants to participate in a beauty pageant. The performance of the child is a fundamental ingredient in this film. Watching ABIGAIL BRESLIN’s delightful and continuously believable actions recalls similar thoughts generated when watching “The Sixth Sense”. HALEY JOEL OSMENT'S performance was simple, elegant and unaffected. ABIGAIL’s is the same. The other similarity to “The Sixth Sense” is that Australian TONI COLLETTE, in another blemish free performance, again plays the mother of the child. (The article on "The Sixth Sense" is worth visiting - it explores issues related to trusting the impulses ... TO READ) |
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The
Significance for Actors?
But what does this mean for actors? Well, “Little Miss Sunshine”
is especially heartwarming for all actors because everyone in this cast
is there because of their skill not because they look beautiful. This
is a film entirely peopled by good actors, who are not only wonderfully
believable but who unfailingly get on with the job of delivering
the story.
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The majority of the characters have some eccentricity about their personality and yet they are played with a believable ordinariness. Twenty-three-year-old PAUL DANO playing the fifteen-year-old brother is great. GREG KINNEAR as the work-obsessed father is terrific and grandfather ALAN ARKIN handles his considerable list of obsessions with consummate ease. And STEVE CARELL is wonderfully likeable as Olive Hoover’s Uncle. Together they take us on a journey that’s worth the trip. For audiences in general this is rewarding for it is an optimistic tale of how a family divided by individual issues can rise above those difficulties for a common good. For actors it reaffirms those essential simple values of good performance in an extraordinarily uplifting way. |
Australian TONI COLLETTE continues steadily on her impressive career with a significant list of very worthwhile films. Last year’s “In Her Shoes” was another standout confirmation of her remarkable skills.
There is work out there for good actors. The message to us all - keep working at building skill.
Copyright & COPY; The Rehearsal Room 2006. All rights Reserved. www.rehearsalroom.com
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