Charming and alarming
LOW-BUDGET, offbeat, and unpretentious, "Little Miss Sunshine" is an indie movie favorite for an Academy Award or two this year, and there is no denying that the film has its charms.
This premise of an off-kilter American family stuffed into an old
We're all supposed to cheer when average-looking 7-year-old Olive Hoover goes up against her robotic, plasticine competitors with strippers' moves learned from her degenerate-yet-charming grandfather, and gets herself and the family banished from all future events. And it's easy to make fun of the kind of people who would tart up these young girls as if they represented some sort of aesthetic and cultural ideal.
Yet, it is exploitation of children of the most blatant order, and possibly a sign of even more dangerous, hidden things.
The reality of sexual abuse of children suggests that the filmmakers may be pointing in the wrong direction by suggesting that the overzealous parents of the other contestants did something much worse to their daughters than the free-spirit Hoovers did almost by accident. The secret she was sharing with her grandfather -- that she was learning to bump and grind -- is presented innocently, as if it were nothing more than an old man's practical joke. And when the old man is played by Alan Arkin, we're inclined to like him, even if he snorts heroin, likes porn, and got kicked out of a retirement community.
In the real world, children who are sexually abused are most often the victims of family members or close friends. They are often ordered to keep secrets or else face severe consequences. They are sometimes lured with pornography and drugs. Certainly, if some or any of these conditions exist, parents should be on alert, and perhaps take prudent measures to protect their children -- such as not leaving the child with the relative/friend for long periods of time.
The family in "Little Miss Sunshine" thinks nothing of letting Olive share a motel room with Grampa, never mind what he's teaching her, and we're not supposed to think anything of it.
Think a grandfather would never sexually abuse his lovely granddaughter? Think again. But the point here is not to advocate for paranoia, only for common sense.
It just seems odd that a movie with so many positive things to say about how it's OK for people to just be themselves, and how winning doesn't matter most, could be so off the mark when it comes to recognizing what the real threats are for children in this world, and how we as adults should respond to them.
That doesn't mean "Little Miss Sunshine" isn't endearing and funny, but it's something to think about after seeing the film.
Hamilton Kahn, a freelance writer living in Truro, is host of "In The News" on WOMR-FM. 
