Meh.

Little Miss Sunshine (2006)

Starring Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, Steve Carrell, Paul Dano and Abigail Breslin.

I suppose that, considering all the hype surrounding this movie, there was no way I could possibly be satisfied with it.

Honestly, though, for all the hype, I thought it would be a little more... I dunno... polished. Less cheesy/predictable.

I found it both cheesy and predictable. We knew early on that Olive's performance would probably be inappropriate, given that Grandpa is such a pottymouth. We knew that things were going to go very wrong during the trip. And we knew that everyone would wind up happy, no matter what happened in the end.

There were great performances all around. The actors all did a phenomenal job. They were subtle, but powerful all the same.

That's why I was so surprised to find that I couldn't get all that invested in them. There are certain things that happen that should really tear your heart right out through your chest, but they don't. I was affected, but not as much as I expected to be.

The only exception to this rule was Uncle Frank's relationship with Dwayne. I think Carrell and Dano did and excellent job and slowly developing their relationship and displaying the unspoken camaraderie their characters feel. I was particularly surprised by Steve Carrell. I know that he's a comedic genius ("The Office" is one of my favorite sit-coms EVER), but I was pleasantly surprised by the depth he was able to infuse into Frank.

That said, though, I did think the movie was rather cheesy. While I loved the scenes where the family had to give the van a running start, I couldn't help but to feel a little beaten over the head with that gag. Yeah, so it's symbolic of how each member of the family contributes to keeping it going and blah-de-blah-blah-metaphorcakes. WE GET IT.

Don't get me wrong; I still enjoyed it and thought it was better than a lot of the steaming crap they called "cinema" last year. But I couldn't help being a wee bit disappointed all the same.