Abigail Breslin can make a child's hopes matter without pleading for our sympathy. Her directness and comic timing are valuable in an ensemble, though her ability to improve thin dialogue sometimes lets the writers off too lightly.
Fi1m perspective
In Little Miss Sunshine (2006), Abigail Breslin's Olive Hoover makes the adults' complaints seem less important without having to dismiss them. We cared about Olive because Breslin made her hopes believable and the effect of the family's behaviour on her worth worrying about. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris get a directness from her that keeps the comedy's contrivances tolerable. Steve Carell's unforced timing and Alan Arkin's impatience help, but she gives us the clearest reason to stay with this family. The film is less convincing when it starts telling us what to think about winning.
Her film debut came in M. Night Shyamalan's Signs (2002), with Little Miss Sunshine bringing her to wider attention. The useful quality in that breakthrough is how little she asks us to indulge her for being a child. By Zombieland (2009), as Little Rock, she is applying a similar lack of fuss to comic dialogue. Ruben Fleischer's horror-comedy relies chiefly on Jesse Eisenberg and Woody Harrelson for its pleasure. Breslin and Emma Stone's Wichita keep their partnership from exhausting the conversation.
The four performers work comfortably together, giving Zombieland more life than its flimsy plot provides. Breslin's timing can make an underwritten exchange sound sufficient for the moment, which is a useful skill and a small problem for the film. Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick get away with leaving the characterisation thin because the cast can get a laugh before we notice. We rate that contribution, while wishing the writing gave her more to work with.
Maggie (2015), a zombie drama in which she leads opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger, marked a move towards darker material. Her regular part in Scream Queens (2015–2016) also gave her a sustained television role. Her later casting has sometimes kept her in youthful or quirky parts, though neither quality is a problem by itself. What matters is whether those characters get enough to do, rather than leaving her to improve thin dialogue again. Start with Little Miss Sunshine; allow for the lectures about winning.
Biography
Abigail Breslin is an American actress. Born in New York City on 14 April 1996, she began acting in commercials at the age of three and made her film debut in Signs (2002).
She rose to prominence playing Olive Hoover in Little Miss Sunshine (2006), for which she received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Her other film roles include Zombieland (2009), Rango (2011), The Call (2013), Ender's Game (2013), August: Osage County (2013) and Zombieland: Double Tap (2019).
Between 2015 and 2016 she had a regular role in the television series Scream Queens. She made her Broadway debut in The Miracle Worker in 2010.
