Little Miss Sunshine is a character driven film about a rather dysfunctional family. The characters and their oddities are listed below: Grandpa (was kicked out of a nursing home and enjoys snorting heroin), Dad (a motivational speaker wannabe), Mom (fairly balanced, but secretly smokes cigarrettes), Son (He is a nihlist and has taken a vow of silence until he makes it into the air force academy), Daughter (an adoreable little girl who only wants to win a state beauty pageant) and Mom's Brother (Tried commiting suicide and failed). The movie centers on this group of peoples' trip across the nation in an old VW bus. They are going to California so the little girl can compete in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant. Needless to say, this odd group of characters has some funny and rather interesting adventures on the road. Sadly, they lose one of the family members along the way, but grow closer to each other in the end.