阳光小美女英语

故事情节Sheryl Hoover (Toni Collette) is an overworked mother of two children who lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her gay brother Frank (Steve Carell) is a scholar of French author Marcel Proust, temporarily living at home with the family after a suicide attempt. Her arrogant, goal-obsessed husband Richard (Greg Kinnear) is striving to build a career as a motivational speaker and life coach. Dwayne (Paul Dano), Sheryl's son from a previous marriage, is an unhappy fifteen-year-old who has taken a vow of silence until he can accomplish his dream of getting into the US Air Force Academy in order to become a test pilot. Richard's foul-mouthed father, Edwin (Alan Arkin), a World War II veteran recently evicted from a retirement home for snorting heroin, lives with the family. He is close with his seven-year-old granddaughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin).When Olive learns she has qualified for the "Little Miss Sunshine" beauty contest that is being held in Redondo Beach, California in two days, she is ecstatic. However, money is tight and due to various logistical issues, the only way to make the trip is if the entire household goes. Despite Richard, Dwayne, and Frank not wanting to go, they all band together to support Olive and embark upon the 800-mile road trip in their antiquated yellowVolkswagen T2 Microbus.Family tensions play out during the journey, amidst the aging van's increasingly troublesome mechanical problems. When the van's clutch breaks early in the trip, the family discovers that they must push the van until it reaches 20 miles per hour and then run and jump in. The bus's horn eventually starts honking unceasingly by itself.Throughout the road trip, the family suffers numerous personal setbacks, and discover their need for each other's support. Richard loses an important contract that would have jump-started his motivational business and saved the family from financial ruin. Frank encounters the ex-student whom he had an unrequited love for, who started dating Frank's chief academic rival (who has also just received a MacArthur Grant), precipitated his suicide attempt. Edwin dies from an apparent heroin overdose. In order to reach their destination in time, the family smuggles his body out of the hospital, planning to make funeral arrangements after the pageant. During the final stretch of the trip, Dwayne discovers that he is color blind, and is therefore unable to attend the Air Force Academy, which prompts him to break his silence, refusing to continue with the trip and revealing his anger and disdain for his family. He storms from the van in tears, but is calmed down by a hug from Olive and returns to the family, apologizing for the things he yelled.After a frantic race against the clock, Olive is almost refused entrance to the pageant when they find they've arrived four minutes after the registration deadline. When the uncaring and unfeeling pageant assistant refuses to budge, her coworker takes pity and offers to register her on his own time. As she gets ready, the family observes the other competitors: slender, sexualized little girls with highly styled hair, heavily made-up faces, spray tans, adult-like sexy swimsuits, and glamorous evening wear, performing highly elaborate dance, musical, and gymnastic routines with great panache. It quickly becomes apparent that Olive (plain, pale, slightly chubby, with unstyled hair, wearing large eyeglasses, and inexperienced in beauty pageant conventions) is not in their league.As Olive's turn to perform in the talent portion of the pageant draws near, Richard and Dwayne recognize that Olive is certain to be humiliated and, wanting to spare her feelings, run to the dressing room to prevent her from performing. Sheryl, however, insists that they shouldn't intervene, and Olive decides to go on stage. She joyfully performs the dance routine that her Grandpa Edwin had secretly choreographed for her: a burlesque performance to Rick James' song "Super Freak", innocently oblivious to the scandalized and horrified reaction of the audience. The organizers are enraged and demand Sheryl and Richard remove Olive from the stage. Instead, one by one the members of the family join Olive on stage, dancing alongside her, and Richard prevents pageant officials from touching his daughter.The family is next seen outside the hotel's security office where a police officer tells them they are free to leave as long as Olive never enters a beauty pageant in the state of California again. Richard tells Olive that her grandfather would be very proud of her, and the family happily piles into the ramshackle bus and heads back to their home in Albuquerque.

My sunshine

作为一部被影评人交口称赞的独立电影，《阳光小美女》的导演乔纳森·戴顿和维莱莉·法瑞斯这对夫妻档并没有在影片中添加过多的说教，整部影片的精妙之处在于信手拈来的自然流露。在影片中无时无刻不在折射出整个美国社会的输赢价值观，所谓“不以成败论英雄”也只是事后之言，如果一个失败者一直没有获得成功，那他永远都是失败者，如果他最终获得了成功，那他就是英雄，哪怕是死后。这种定义标准是主流价值的取向，渗透在美国社会的各个角落，影片中的小主人公奥利弗热衷于选美也正是受到电视媒体的宣传导向的影响。整个社会在这种价值观的影响之下，所有人都充满了功利心，而影片中的父亲理查德正是一个受害者，在他的思维中除了赢就是输，为此还疯狂推销他的“九步成功论”，并且对曾经自杀的弗兰克很不以为然，将他视为“失败者”。甚至连“阳光小美女”这样的儿童选美也成为一种标杆，那一个个浓妆艳抹打扮的女孩，如同从一个模子里出来的芭比娃娃，求赢的功利心在人生的最初便被打上了烙印。

相关资源

阳光小美女 Little Miss Sunshine

链接: 

Little Miss Sunshine的英文介绍有五个版本，具体如下:

Little Miss Sunshine电影中文介绍：

《阳光小美女》是由乔纳森·戴顿和维莱莉·法瑞斯共同执导一部家庭喜剧电影，由艾伦·阿金、阿比吉尔·布莱斯林和史蒂夫·卡瑞尔等联袂出演。影片于2006年7月2日在美国洛杉矶电影节率先放映。电影讲述胡弗斯一家总是有着各种各样的理不清的问题，可当7岁的小女儿奥利弗听到广播中传来的“阳光小美女”选美比赛那一刹那，他们决定没有什么比小女孩的大梦想更为重要。这个六口之家随即踏上了从小镇阿尔伯克基长途跋涉到加州参加比赛的路途。