《Little Miss Sunshine》　阳光小美女　让孩子敲开心灵之门

No.038　《Little Miss Sunshine》　阳光小美女　让孩子敲开心灵之门

英文导读

Little Miss Sunshine, a 2006 American comedy-drama road film, was the directorial film debut of the husband-wife team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. The screenplay was written by first-time writer Michael Arndt. The movie stars Greg Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin and Alan Arkin, and was produced by Big Beach Films on a budget of $8 million. Filming began on June 6, 2005 and took place over 30 days in Arizona and Southern California.

The motley six-member Hoover family treks from Albuquerque to the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, to fulfill the deepest wish of 7-year-old Olive, an ordinary little girl with big dreams. Along the way the family must deal with crushed dreams, heartbreaks, and a broken-down VW bus, leading up to the surreal Little Miss Sunshine competition itself. On their travels through this bizarrely funny landscape, the Hoovers learn to trust and support each other along the path of life, no matter what the challenge.

The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2006, and its distribution rights were bought by Fox Searchlight Pictures for one of the biggest deals made in the history of the festival. The film had a limited release in the United States on July 26, 2006, and later expanded to a wider release starting on August 18.

The film received positive reviews by critics. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 91% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 205 reviews, with an average score of 7.7/10. Michael Medved gave Little Miss Sunshine four stars (out of four) saying that "... this startling and irresistible dark comedy counts as one of the very best films of the year ..." and that directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the movie itself, and actors Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, and Steve Carell deserved Oscar nominations. Joel Siegel issued a rarely awarded 'A' rating, saying that "Orson Welles would have to come back to life for this not to make my year-end Top 10 list." Stella Papamichael of BBC News called the film "a winning blend of sophistication and silliness". USA Today's Claudia Puig commented on Breslin's depiction of Olive Hoover, "If Olive had been played by any other little girl, she would not have affected us as mightily as it did."

Little Miss Sunshine received critical acclaim and had an international box office gross of $100.5 million. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and won two: Best Original Screenplay for Michael Arndt and Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin. It also won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Feature and received numerous other accolades.

获奖情况

2007年第79届奥斯卡：最佳男配角奖，并荣获最佳影片提名、最佳女配角提名。

影片信息

导演：乔纳森·戴顿、维莱莉·法瑞斯

编剧：迈克尔·阿恩特

主演：阿比盖尔·布蕾斯琳、托妮·克莱特、格雷戈·金尼尔、保罗·达诺

类型：剧情、喜剧、家庭

制片国家（地区）：美国

上映日期：2006-08-18（美国）

片长：101分钟

又名：《选美一家亲》《阳光小小姐》《选美小小姐》《小太阳的愿望》

剧情简介

胡弗一家六口的个性都很怪异，每个人都有自己的问题，但同时每个人都不愿意花时间去倾听别人的问题，因此家里的餐桌常常成为爆发争吵的战场。

爸爸是推销成功学课程的讲师，相信“世界上只有两种人，成功者和失败者”，四处贩卖他的“成功九部曲”；哥哥是一个自闭男，崇拜尼采，为了考上飞行学院发下哑誓，9个月没有同家人说话；舅舅自称是美国最好的普鲁斯特研究学者，恋人和同事跑掉、失业，自杀未遂，生活混乱；爷爷（阿兰·阿尔金　饰）被养老院赶出来的，满嘴脏话、吸毒；妈妈是这个疯狂家庭唯一正常的人。

7岁的奥利芙，戴眼镜、小肚腩，想要参加“阳光小美女”的选美比赛，坚信自己有朝一日能当选美国小姐。在家人的支持下，奥利芙参加了“阳光小美女”比赛，一家人踏上了集体寻梦的旅程。

奥利芙能否如愿当选？家庭成员们怎样才能度过他们各自的危机？

制作花絮

由于资金问题，剧本被雪藏了5年之久才得以重见天日。

由于剧本一再被人轻视，制片人马克·特托图以25万美元的超低价买下了故事的电影改编权。

本片在圣丹斯电影节一上映便得到了广大的好评，一夜之间各大发行商纷纷抛来绣球，最后，福克斯探照灯以1050万美元破纪录地买下了本片的发行权，创造了圣丹斯电影节有史以来的最高卖价。

重点学习

Leading up to the surreal Little Miss Sunshine competition itself

Lead up to是英语中的一个常见搭配，它最常见的意思是“（道路等）（向上）一直通往；把…一直带到…”，比如：They cleared a path which leads up to the hilltop.（他们开辟了一条通往山顶的小路。）该搭配还可以表达“渐渐地引到（某个话题）；转弯抹角地提及”的意思，比如：The boy led up to his desire for a bicycle.（男孩转弯抹角地提出他很想要一辆自行车。）另外，lead up to还有“为…做准备；为…铺路；为…的先导；趋向于证明；导致”等意思。

Orson Welles would have to come back to life for this

Come back to life是英语中的一个固定短语，它是“复活；恢复健康，苏醒过来；回到现实；回到生活中”的意思，比如：Everything seems to come back to life in spring.（在春天，万事万物似乎又再度苏醒了。）

单词时间

motley[ˈmɔtli] adj. 杂色的；混杂的；五颜六色的

trek[trek] vi. 艰苦跋涉

pageant[ˈpædʒənt] n. 盛会；游行；虚饰；露天表演

heartbreak[ˈhɑ:tbreik] n. 心碎；伤心事

surreal[səˈriəl] adj. 超现实主义的；离奇的；不真实的

bizarrely[biˈza:li] adv.奇形怪状地；怪诞地

irresistible[ˌiriˈzistəbl] adj. 不可抵抗的；不能压制的；极为诱人的

sophistication[səˌfistiˈkeiʃən] n. 复杂；诡辩；老于世故；有教养

silliness[ˈsilinis] n. 愚蠢；糊涂

depiction[diˈpikʃən] n. 描写，叙述

mightily[ˈmaitili] adv.强烈地，激烈地；非常地