《Little Miss Sunshine》　陽光小美女　讓孩子敲開心靈之門

No.038　《Little Miss Sunshine》　陽光小美女　讓孩子敲開心靈之門

英文導(dǎo)讀

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.

獲獎情況

2007年第79屆奧斯卡：最佳男配角獎，并榮獲最佳影片提名、最佳女配角提名。

影片信息

導(dǎo)演：喬納森·戴頓、維萊莉·法瑞斯

編?。哼~克爾·阿恩特

主演：阿比蓋爾·布蕾斯琳、托妮·克萊特、格雷戈·金尼爾、保羅·達諾

類型：劇情、喜劇、家庭

制片國家（地區(qū)）：美國

上映日期：2006-08-18（美國）

片長：101分鐘

又名：《選美一家親》《陽光小小姐》《選美小小姐》《小太陽的愿望》

劇情簡介

胡弗一家六口的個性都很怪異，每個人都有自己的問題，但同時每個人都不愿意花時間去傾聽別人的問題，因此家里的餐桌常常成為爆發(fā)爭吵的戰(zhàn)場。

爸爸是推銷成功學(xué)課程的講師，相信“世界上只有兩種人，成功者和失敗者”，四處販賣他的“成功九部曲”；哥哥是一個自閉男，崇拜尼采，為了考上飛行學(xué)院發(fā)下啞誓，9個月沒有同家人說話；舅舅自稱是美國最好的普魯斯特研究學(xué)者，戀人和同事跑掉、失業(yè)，自殺未遂，生活混亂；爺爺（阿蘭·阿爾金　飾）被養(yǎng)老院趕出來的，滿嘴臟話、吸毒；媽媽是這個瘋狂家庭唯一正常的人。

7歲的奧利芙，戴眼鏡、小肚腩，想要參加“陽光小美女”的選美比賽，堅信自己有朝一日能當(dāng)選美國小姐。在家人的支持下，奧利芙參加了“陽光小美女”比賽，一家人踏上了集體尋夢的旅程。

奧利芙能否如愿當(dāng)選？家庭成員們怎樣才能度過他們各自的危機？

制作花絮

由于資金問題，劇本被雪藏了5年之久才得以重見天日。

由于劇本一再被人輕視，制片人馬克·特托圖以25萬美元的超低價買下了故事的電影改編權(quán)。

本片在圣丹斯電影節(jié)一上映便得到了廣大的好評，一夜之間各大發(fā)行商紛紛拋來繡球，最后，福克斯探照燈以1050萬美元破紀(jì)錄地買下了本片的發(fā)行權(quán)，創(chuàng)造了圣丹斯電影節(jié)有史以來的最高賣價。

重點學(xué)習(xí)

Leading up to the surreal Little Miss Sunshine competition itself

Lead up to是英語中的一個常見搭配，它最常見的意思是“（道路等）（向上）一直通往；把…一直帶到…”，比如：They cleared a path which leads up to the hilltop.（他們開辟了一條通往山頂?shù)男÷?。）該搭配還可以表達“漸漸地引到（某個話題）；轉(zhuǎn)彎抹角地提及”的意思，比如：The boy led up to his desire for a bicycle.（男孩轉(zhuǎn)彎抹角地提出他很想要一輛自行車。）另外，lead up to還有“為…做準(zhǔn)備；為…鋪路；為…的先導(dǎo)；趨向于證明；導(dǎo)致”等意思。

Orson Welles would have to come back to life for this

Come back to life是英語中的一個固定短語，它是“復(fù)活；恢復(fù)健康，蘇醒過來；回到現(xiàn)實；回到生活中”的意思，比如：Everything seems to come back to life in spring.（在春天，萬事萬物似乎又再度蘇醒了。）

單詞時間

motley[?m?tli] adj. 雜色的；混雜的；五顏六色的

trek[trek] vi. 艱苦跋涉

pageant[?pæd??nt] n. 盛會；游行；虛飾；露天表演

heartbreak[?hɑ:tbreik] n. 心碎；傷心事

surreal[s??ri?l] adj. 超現(xiàn)實主義的；離奇的；不真實的

bizarrely[bi?za:li] adv.奇形怪狀地；怪誕地

irresistible[?iri?zist?bl] adj. 不可抵抗的；不能壓制的；極為誘人的

sophistication[s??fisti?kei??n] n. 復(fù)雜；詭辯；老于世故；有教養(yǎng)

silliness[?silinis] n. 愚蠢；糊涂

depiction[di?pik??n] n. 描寫，敘述

mightily[?maitili] adv.強烈地，激烈地；非常地