Abigail Breslin received her only Oscar nomination to date for her performance as Olive Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine.
Little Miss Sunshine is a wonderful comedy about a family who take a cross-country trip on their VW bus in order to get their daughter into the finals of a beauty pageant. It's a truly great movie bolstered by an exceptional, intelligent screenplay and a terrific ensemble: Greg Kinnear is very good in portraying the frustration and insecurity behind Richard's often annoying personality; Toni Collette is warm and spontaneous as Sheryl, the mother, and Dano is very effective as the apparently sullen but actually kind Dwayne; but my personal favorite of the whole cast is Steve Carell who delivers a brilliant performance that is hilarious in a second and heartbreaking in the next. The scene in which Frank accidentally meets his ex-boyfriend moves me every time.
Quite a few child-performances have been nominated to an Oscar, but almost always in the roles of precocious kids (Quinn Cummings in The Goodbye Girl, Tatum O'Neal in Paper Moon) or children facing particularly dark situations (Anna Paquin in The Piano, Linda Blair in The Exorcist). Along with Justin Henry in Kramer vs. Kramer, Abigail Breslin might be the only nominee for a performance of an "ordinary" child. This doesn't make her role any less demanding than the ones of the previously mentioned actors though as realism is not an easy thing to accomplish, especially for a child. Abigail Breslin thankfully manages to avoid the worst tendencies of child acting and delivers a wonderful and genuine performance that doesn't have a single misstep: none of her line-deliveries sound rehearsed or fake - she is always so natural and convincing that her work seems almost effortless. She's cute and endearing but she is never cheesy or cloying - she doesn't seem to try hard to make the viewer like her, she simply makes the viewer like her by portraying Olive just for what she is: a kid. She works brilliantly with the rest of the ensemble and she is never overshadowed by the more experienced actors around her - her conversation with Steve Carell's Frank about why he tried to commit suicide is priceless and they play off each other extremely well. Her reaction when she finds out that she has qualified for the beauty pageant is hilarious because it really feels like something that a child would do. In the scenes during the trip, Breslin doesn't always have that much to do and spends quite a bit of time in the background but she never stops being a lovely presence and never becomes forgettable: she simply blends nicely with the rest of the cast and even when she herself isn't doing much she still adds a lot to the scene.
What is particularly impressive is Breslin's deep understanding of the character, of Olive's fears and vulnerabilities. Right from the beginning, it's rather clear for the viewer that Olive is not going to win the beauty pageant: her other competitors are skinny, hypersexualized little girls dressed up like women - while she is a bit chubby, plain-looking and wears big glasses. Breslin does a fantastic job in portraying the insecurities of Olive in some truly poignant moments that stand as some of the movie's best: the scene when she is unsure whether to eat ice cream or not, after her father told her it would make her fat and that girls at the beauty pageant are not fat, is a moving little scene and Breslin is very touching in simply showing how Olive wants to please her dad and make him proud of her. She shows this exceptionally well also in a later scene with Alan Arkin (who plays her grandfather), which is probably her best scene in the whole movie: Breslin is absolutely heartbreaking in portraying Olive's doubts and fears of not being pretty enough and losing the competition. Her crying never once feels fake and what I particularly love about the scene is that Breslin, despite showing how much Olive is clearly interested in the competition and would be happy if she won it, suggests that she actually wants to win the most because she wants to make her father appreciate her more (her line-delivery of "Because daddy hates losers" is truly heartwrenching). Her chemistry with Alan Arkin is also exceptional as they perfectly portray Olive's and Edwin's close, tender relationship, and her smile through the tears as he tells her she's beautiful is deeply poignant.
But, of course, one of Breslin's most memorable moments is her final dance at the competition: it's a brilliant scene (perfectly written and acted all around) and Breslin is absolutely hilarious - she goes through her number with the right amount of energy and naivety that simply makes her incredibly funny. The scene doesn't actually require particularly heavy acting but it perfectly shows how great Abigail Breslin is in the role: many other children would have overacted awfully during the scene or they would have tried too hard to be funny. Breslin instead never once winks at the audience and plays the scene without any trace of self-awareness - she properly makes Olive completely oblivious of the inadequacy of her performance on stage, and this is precisely what makes her so funny.
In the end, this is a really lovely performance from Abigail Breslin who is both funny and moving in a role that is more challenging than it seems. She delivers a genuine performance that rings true from beginning to end and she easily places herself as the emotional crux of the whole movie. Wonderful work in a wonderful movie.
4.5/5
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