Hey, gang. Capone in Chicago here.

I thought it might be too early in the year to say such things, but Little Miss Sunshine is one of the year's best. And I don't think I'll be the only critic to say so, which probably means that before the end of the year, they'll be an enormous backlash against this movie, so you better run out and see it now before things get ugly. The film is the perfect blend of comedy, emotional family drama, road movie, introspective unpleasantries, and charm.

I'm a music video geek from way back, so I always made a point to notice who directed what videos. I'm not talking about Martin Scorsese or John Landis directing a Michael Jackson video; I'm talking about people who made their living at creating 5-minute videos and never seemed to run dry at the creative well. While Little Miss Sunshine is, in fact, directed by first-time feature directors (and husband-and-wife team) Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the pair have been coming up with powerful visual statement for many years. Why they don't have their own "Director's Series" compilation like Michel Gondry or Spike Jonze is beyond me. So when I heard earlier this year, that this film had stolen the hearts of those at the Sundance Film Festival, I was pleasantly surprised.

The Hoover family is a mess, but their baseless sense of optimism is something of an inspiration. Richard (Greg Kinnear) is a motivational speaker who needs a little help motivating people to actually come see him speak. He things he had the answers (in the form of pithy catchphrases) to solving anyone's problems, but his family is falling apart and he pretends not to notice. His fraying wife Sheryl (Toni Collette) wants an open dialogue within the family, which is tough considering her teenage son Dwayne (Paul Dano, most recently seen in The King) has stopped speaking altogether. Sheryl¹s gay brother, Frank (Steve Carell), has just moved in with the family after attempting suicide when his lover leaves him.

Also living in the home is Richard's foul-mouthed, heroin-snorting father (Alan Arkin). (The primary reason for the film's R rating is Arkin's language.) The binding force is the sweetly nerdy, seven-year-old Olive (a remarkable Abigail Breslin), a second place finisher in a local beauty pageant. When the pageant's winner is made ineligible, Olive and her family must pile into the family's dilapidated VW bus (is there any better vehicle for a family road movie?) and drive to California for the Little Miss Sunshine Pageant.

Their three-day journey makes up the bulk of the film, and the resulting trip is one of the most grueling and hilarious undertakings you're likely to see this year. Let's start with the obvious: Carell is a gift. His performance as the brooding, bearded Proust scholar is as different from anything he's done as he could get and shows another level of a his acting talents that has never been tapped. Kinnear has proven to be a solid actor before (the guy did get an Oscar nomination after all), but this might be the best he¹s ever been. His driven Richard is both pathetic and strong as the man hoping to turn his nine-step program for success into a book deal (he¹s on the phone constantly to see if a book pitch has garnered any publishing interest). And there was never any doubt in my mind how that endeavor was going to turn out.

The Hoovers are a family of misfits, some of whom know it and hate it; some simply embrace it, like Olive. There will not be a more inspirational character in another film this year. Her dance number during the pageant (choreographed off-camera with the help of her grandfather) is one of the funniest things I¹ve ever seen and will become the stuff of legend in filmdom. We've been spoiled for years by the acting gift that is Toni Collette, so to say that she turns in an extraordinary performance here is pointless. The film'e scene in which he melts down after discovering he is color blind and thus could never fly planes is devastating.

But it is the family's insecurities and collective loser status that binds them and makes them stronger and able to continue living (even Frank). Little Miss Sunshine is not based on a play or a book or a TV show or a graphic novel; it's an extraordinary original screenplay (what a concept) from first-time writer Michael Arndt, and it's kind of remarkable to see this kind of film released in the summer (albeit the late summer). Maybe it's because the film stands out so much from the rest of the films out right now that it may catch people¹s attention. God, I hope so.

This is one of those rare film you champion and push people to see for months. As all classic family road movies, the characters change and grow during the course of their trip, hopefully for the better. And at no time does it try to force laughs out of its story with lame jokes and site gags. The situations are ridiculous enough; they don't need punchlines. This is just one of those works that makes your life a tiny bit better because you know there are filmmakers actually trying to make something great without reinventing the wheel. Prepare to be enriched, or, at the very least, you'll breathe a sigh of relief that your family isn't as screwed up as the Hoovers.

Capone