Dwayne (Paul Dano) and Frank (Steve Carell) chat on a pier near where the pageant's taking place. There they share a tender, even tear-jerking, moment.
FROM THE SCRIPT:
Dwayne:
"Sometimes I wish I could just go to sleep until I was eighteen. Just skip all this crap -- high school and everything. Just skip it..."
Frank:
"Y'ever hear of Marcel Proust?"
Dwayne:
"He's the guy you teach?"
Frank:
"Yeah. French writer. Total loser.Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent twenty years writing a book almost no one reads. But... he was also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he gets down to the end of his life, he looks back and he decides that all the years he suffered -- those were the best years of his life. Because they made him who he was. They forced him to think and grow, and to feel very deeply. And the years he was happy? Total waste. Didn't learn anything."
Dwayne grins.
Frank:
"So, if you sleep until you're eighteen... (Scoffs.) Think of the suffering you'll miss!"
After that they both put on T-shirts Frank bought them that say "LOSER" in big block letters.
Later when events turn awry at the pageant, Richard, Frank, Dwayne and Sheryl join Olive on stage and boogey right alongside her -- making her feel like the winner she already is.
Just goes to show what family's all about, doesn't it?
Paul Dano is a scene stealer in every film he's in and I totally love him. He's been under the radar for a while but is just now breaking out... just watch, he's going to have an Oscar sitting in his house one day.