The Hoovers of Albuquerque, New Mexico, are a lot of things, but happy is not one of them.  The question is whether this motley—okay, eccentric . . . all right, downright dysfunctional –extended family can find happiness on a frantic road trip to California. 

The early returns suggest not.  Dad Richard (Greg Kinnear) is an unsuccessful motivational speaker.  Mom Sheryl (Toni Collette) is at her wits' end trying to support the family.  Teenage son Dwayne (Paul Dano) reads Nietzsche and hasn't spoken in nine months.  Grandpa (Alan Arkin), who lives with them, is a potty-mouthed junkie, and newly-arrived Uncle Frank is a suicidal, gay Proust scholar.  Seven-year-old Olive (Abigail Breslin) dreams of being a beauty queen. 

This is not your father's suburban family.  But, even as the film introduces this frayed and fractious bunch, its overall gentle, bittersweet tone bleeds through, and we suspect that things just might work out.

But, that doesn't mean they won't unravel further first.  When Olive discovers that she's qualified for the finals of the "Little Miss Sunshine" pageant, the whole family piles into their ancient VW van and sets off for Redondo Beach, Calif.  (The van is surely a metaphor for a magical mystery tour.)

This is a Murphy's Law trip: Every thing that can go wrong does.  The transmission dies, and they have to either park on a hill or push the van to get it going.  Stopped at a cheap motel for the night, grandpa snorts heroin and never wakes up and the others stuff his body wrapped in a sheet in the back of the van.  When the horn malfunctions and won't stop beeping as they roll down the freeway, a cop pulls them over.  With nary a hint of irony, Dad cautions the others, "Everybody act normal."  We laughed out loud.  And, not for the last time. 

The beauty contest—with its bronzed, coifed, mascaraed, and lipsticked contestants eerily suggestive of the tragic Jon Benet Ramsey—is at the film's climax.  Even here, the film refrains from being mean-spirited or cynical, but the hypocrisy (nod, nod, wink, wink) of these "entertainments" can not be missed.  

The literate script and deft direction belie that screenwriter Michael Arndt and husband-and-wife directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris are making their big-screen debuts.  The ensemble cast is uniformly excellent, and Matt Winston is appropriately odious as a dead-on caricature of a beauty pageant MC. 

Don't be fooled by the innocuous-sounding title.  This is not family fare.  It's rated "R" for lots of foul language.  Military.com Rating: ***

DVD Tip: Beauty pageants for young women aren't as suspect as "Little Miss" contests, but it's only a matter of degree.  If "Little Miss Sunshine" gently parodies the one, 1975's "Smile" skewers the other.  Directed by Michael Richie ("The Candidate,"  the original "Bad News Bears"), this minor classic shines a harsh light behind the scenes of the fictional "Young American Miss" pageant.  Written by Jerry Belson (the original "Fun with Dick and Jane," and the 1960's-era "Dick Van Dyke Show") and starring Bruce Dern ("Coming Home," "The Great Gatsby") and Barbara Felton (Agent 99 on the "Get Smart" television series), the film features Joan Prather as a naive contestant clearly out of her depth—an almost grown-up version of "Little Miss Sunshine's" wide-eyed Olive, similarly wading in an uncharted swamp.  "Smile" also features the film debut of a young (and topless) Melanie Griffith.  Military.com Rating: ***½

Military.com's Movie Rating Scale

* As entertaining as an Article 15 (Best to avoid if possible)
** Another weekend pass (O.K., but nothing special)
*** On a par with a promotion (Don't pass it up)
**** DEROS (It doesn't get much better than this)