The Hoover family -- Abigail Breslin, Toni Collette, Steve Carell and Greg Kinnear -- embark on a hellish road trip to a junior beauty pageant.

You've heard of comedies, dramas and dramedies. Now, make way for a squirmedy.

It's a word I invented after watching "Little Miss Sunshine." It has comedy, it has drama, and it is guaranteed to make you squirm. A lot.

		'Little Miss Sunshine' Rating: R for language, some sex and drug content. Starring: Greg Kinnear, Toni Collette, Steve Carell. Directors: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris. Web site: www2.foxsearchlight.com/ littlemisssunshine

Grandpa (Alan Arkin) was kicked out of a retirement home for snorting heroin. His son Richard Hoover (Greg Kinnear) is a motivational speaker with a nine-step program for success that doesn't seem to be working for anyone, especially him.

Richard is married to Sheryl (Toni Collette), whose older son, Dwayne (Paul Dano), has taken a vow of silence and scribbles angry notes such as "I Hate Everyone." Sheryl's brother, Frank (Steve Carell), has landed at the Hoover household after losing the affection of a male grad student to a rival Proust scholar. Now Frank is jobless, homeless and suicidal, the gauze on his wrists still fresh.

And then there is Richard and Sheryl's bespectacled daughter, Olive (Abigail Breslin), who is 7 and improbably dreams of being a beauty queen. She can turn the world on with her smile, but she doesn't look like the usual pint-size pageant princess.

Still, she earns a last-minute spot in the Little Miss Sunshine pageant in Redondo Beach, Calif. The family decides to drive there from Albuquerque, and "Little Miss Sunshine" can easily trump any calamity from Chevy Chase's road adventures.

Grandpa issues vulgar advice about women from the back seat (Olive has enormous headphones clamped to her ears and cannot hear, although we unfortunately can). During a meal break, Richard suggests Olive will get fat if she eats the ice cream she ordered.

When the clutch goes on the bus, you think the family will finally pack it in and slink home. But they plow ahead, pushing the VW as the driver gets it into gear and the passengers hop in the side door while the vehicle is rolling.

Car trouble proves to be the least of their worries when things take a serious turn that even the Hoovers may not be able to surmount. Like objects in your car mirror that are closer than they appear, some minor details end up looming large and changing everything.

"Little Miss Sunshine," written by Michael Arndt and directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, is guaranteed to make you slink down into your seat, especially whenever the Arkin character is cussing about chicken (again) for dinner or requesting a porn magazine at a rest stop.

However, despite the despicable sides of Grandpa, he has a sweet relationship with Olive, who asks him, "Grandpa, am I pretty?" and he hits one out of the park with his answer. On this family road trip from hell, the characters warm up to each other and the audience warms to them, too.

It builds to a scene that manages to skewer child pageants and notions of winners and losers as never before. It's darkly funny and appalling, and it turns this squabbling bunch into a family. Finally.

"The Office" star Carell proves he can dim the light in his eyes just as other funnymen (Jim Carrey, Robin Williams) can, while Dano must express his disdain and outrage largely through his face and body language. Collette and Kinnear expertly traffic in inappropriate honesty or optimism while young Breslin is the sunny center of the family.

And the film.