Great Characters: Dwayne Hoover (“Little Miss Sunshine”)

Frankly you could choose any of the characters in Little Miss Sunshine, the 2006 gem of a movie written by Michael Arndt, but let’s go with Dwayne:

Here’s the movie’s storyeline from IMDB:

In Albuquerque, the housewife Sheryl Hoover brings her suicidal brother Frank to the breast of her dysfunctional and bankrupted family. Frank is homosexual and expert in Proust, and tried to commit suicide when he was rejected by his boyfriend and his great competitor became renowned and recognized as number one in the field of Proust. Sheryl’s husband Richard is unsuccessfully trying to sell his self-help and self-improvement technique using nine steps to reach success, but he is actually a complete loser. Her son Dwayne has taken a vow of silence as a follower of Nietzsche and aims to be a jet pilot. Dwayne’s grandfather Edwin was sent away from the institution for elders Sunset Manor and is addicted in heroin. When her seven years old daughter Olive has a chance to dispute the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, California, the whole family travels together in their old Volkswagen

For about half the movie, Dwyane’s character doesn’t say a word, but that doesn’t mean he can’t communicate. His body language. Facial expressions. T-shirt slogans. And the notes he writes:

He hates everyone, most especially his family. It’s no coincidence his goal is to become a jet pilot, symbolically wanting to get as far away from these “losers” as possible. He conveys this sentiment in one of his many memorable scenes, this one when he discovers he is color-blind and therefore can not achieve his goal. Here is his reaction:

And this monologue:

Sheryl: You know, like it or not, we’re still your family, for better or worse…

Dwayne: No, you’re not my family! I don’t wanna be your family! I hate you fucking people! Divorce? Bankrupt? Suicide? You’re fucking losers, you’re losers! No, please just leave me here, Mom. Please, please, please. Please… just leave me here.

Followed by this moment:

Then toward the end of the movie, Dwayne offers this expression of what he’s learned in his own hero’s journey:

Dwayne: You know what? Fuck beauty contests. Life is one fucking beauty contest after another. School, then college, then work… Fuck that. And fuck the Air Force Academy. If I want to fly, I’ll find a way to fly. You do what you love, and fuck the rest.

Leave it to the character who takes a vow of silence… to have perhaps the most notable side of dialogue in the entire story.

Dwayne Hoover: A Great Character.

By the way, the last two sequences were shot in Ventura, California, not Redondo Beach. The hotel where the beauty pageant took place used to be a Holiday Inn. About 200 feet to the east is a restaurant and nightclub where I used to perform music and comedy [at the time it was called “Charlie’s”]. It was not only where I met my first writing partner and uttered those infamous words I can do that, it’s also where I met my wife of now twenty-six years. So apart from being a terrific movie, Little Miss Sunshine will always hold a special place in my heart.

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