The simple plot revolves around little Olive Hoover (Abigail Breslin), who competed in a regional beauty contest while she was staying with her aunt Cindy a month ago. Olive took second place in the event, and now the Hoover family learns that the girl who won the competition was forced to give up her crown, which makes Olive the new champion.

Given an opportunity to represent her region and win the title at the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in California two days from now, Olive becomes very excited. However, her parents, Richard (Greg Kinnear) and Sheryl (Toni Collette), do not have enough money for plane tickets to California. Sheryl cannot take the family’s VW bus because it has a standard, not automatic, transmission. Even if she could drive the bus, Sheryl doesn’t want to leave her brother Frank (Steve Carrell) unattended or in the care of teenage son Dwayne (Paul Dano) because he’s just been released from a hospital for trying to kill himself.

Grandpa Edwin (Alan Arkin) insists on going to California. Why? Because he’s the choreographer of Olive’s routine. Foul foul-mouthed, irritable, and hot-tempered, Edwin also has a heroin habit and doesn’t care that the topics he brings up for discussion are offensive. Dwayne, on the other hand, prefers to use a series of gestures and hand signals or to write down his responses rather than talk out loud. He plans on continuing this until he reaches his goal of becoming a fighter pilot. Sheryl bribes Dwayne to come along with them for Olive’s sake, giving him permission for flight school.

Richard has created a self-help program he thinks will revolutionize the world. An agent is supposed to be shopping the program around in order to get the right marketing deal. This person becomes unreachable after Richard leaves a series of longwinded messages for him, hoping to see the man in person on the way to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. 

Everyone crams into the beaten-up old VW bus and heads for California. Unfortunately, a loud crunch is heard as Richard tries to shift gears. The clutch in the bus is broken and can’t be fixed in time to get to California because needed parts are not in stock. Even if there were a VW dealership nearby, the mechanic at the gas station points out, it would be closed all weekend. He tells Richard if the van was on a slant or pushed as he shifts from first to second gear at the same time, he can get it started again and continue to California. 

Breslin stands out in the excellent cast assembled for this comedy. She’s focused, listens beautifully, and is delightful as Olive. I also enjoyed Arkin’s amusing, sarcastic, supporting turn as Grandpa Edwin. 

Directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, Little Miss Sunshine is a humorous, warm, and engaging film. I predict it will be a contender at the 2006 Academy Awards.

(Released by Fox Searchlight Pictures and rated "R" for language, some sex and drug content.)