Movie Review: The Color of Sunshine
08/17/2006 10:23 AM by Gretchen Schauffler
OK, so I have already seen “Little Miss Sunshine” twice. Once for the story and, the second time, for the color! Some people talk about the lighting in movie making. I love that light turns into color.
Yes, the color in movies is sometimes used so brilliantly that I have to go back to see it again. This movie is about a family that has to handle disappointments while pursuing their dreams.
A father who believes in nine steps to becoming a winner; a son who wants to fly; an uncle who wants love; a grandfather who wants to be young again; a mother who wants a united family; and a little girl named Olive who wants to be a beauty queen. That’s the begining of the story.
Olive gets a chance to compete in the Little Miss Sunshine contest, a title which fits her perfectly. She is the epitome of how hope and dreams begin. Color tells a huge part of the story. The family home is all wood veneer walls with a chaotic confetti of colors throughout cluttered rooms. It is a warm, natural environment where you experience the state of the family from the get go!
When they decide to drive to the beauty pageant, the son declares he will go, but he will not have any fun. They have a lemon yellow VW bus and the mere sight of this cheery color in the midst of the family’s stormy tension is a powerful sign of things to come.
The road trip is bathed in bright sunlight, which shows every imperfection of these characters, but also gives them a most endearing, loving glow.
Olive, who is the heart of the movie, is dressed in red always(a pretty strong color for a 7-year old). Red is the color of passion, fire, boldness and, here, of unwavering hope. In her red boots you see her take her steps towards her dream.
Once they reach the pageant, the colors change from a natural, loving palette to garish synthetic versions of rainbow colors embellished with artifical baubles. It is the harsh reality of winners and losers, judgment and perfection, drenched in artificial light. It is as if all the life and depth of color had been sucked out.
Olive is a bold contrast against this palette with her spirit and her own true colors. So will she be a winner or a loser? Such colorful life lessons are learned.
All I wanted to do was hop on the bus home with them…...
Gretchen Schauffler
Artist and Founder of Devine Color®
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I loved this movie because it reminded me of my own family’s crazy journey in a VW microbus from Ohio to the west coast. We had a hope too. After a visit to the incredible rock formations and multiple hues of the Grand Canyon, we all desired to escape the drab, polluted city and live in the vibrant natural colors of the west. We lived in Akron, rubber captitol of the world, where the snow would turn black as soon as it fell. So my parents sold our home and we got into the van and simply drove west, without a plan. Along the way, our microbus took on a personality of its own, just like the van in the movie. A cantankerous personality! We had to get out and push start the thing countless times, just as they did in Little Miss Sunshine! And then the horn got stuck, just like in the movie! But unlike the movie, our horn seemed to run out of steam after a bit. And then all we could get out of it was a pathetic whimpering bleet, which our fellow motorists could not take seriously. Despite these hardships, we made it to Oregon where the ocean is blue and the trees are green and the snow is actually white!
— Robert 07/13/2007 05:39 PM #
I LOVED that you shared your colorful story, isn’t that what life is about!
— gretchen Schauffler 07/13/2007 10:49 PM #