Because of Winn-Dixie film review

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BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE

Ten years after Wayne Wang directed the critically acclaimed brace of Paul Auster's stories, Smoke and Blue In The Face, he has gone from working with one of America's leading authors to one of its newest. Kate Di Camillo's debut novel Because Of Winn-Dixie, about a ten-year-old girl who adopts a dog that changes her life, may be cute enough, but it's hardly the material to set Wang's once promising career back on track.

Because Of Winn-Dixie possesses a gentle, poetic lilt, but one that in today's brash marketplace is maybe too quaint to find an audience beyond young girls who can identify with the troubled Opal (Annasophia Robb). In a Mean Girls world, nice and sweet are virtues parents hope their kids appreciate, but are not necessarily what kids themselves are looking for in a film.

That said, it's encouraging that the battle hasn't been totally conceded and films like this are still being made. It's just a shame that Because Of Winn-Dixie had to resort to a number of cheap devices to try and win approval. As if having a big fluffy dog wasn't enough, it felt compelled to plaster a creepy computer generated smile on its face.

Fortunately Opal's smiles are genuine and winning. The only child in a one-parent family, Opal is looking for friends and answers to who her mother is and why she left home. Shunted around the country thanks to her preacher father (Jeff Daniel)'s job, she arrives in the little rural town of Naomi. "Dear God," she preys, "if it's not too much trouble, I'd like some friends." While she has the Lord's ear, she adds, "I miss my momma. I'd really like to see my momma again." Her father's insular nature prompts Opal to compare him with a turtle, while his disciplined side has her calling him "Sir."

Left to entertain herself, Opal happens upon a stray dog and, desperate for companionship, takes him home to her disapproving dad. Named after the grocery store where she was found, Winn-Dixie proves to be Opal's passport into Naomi's social circles. The mischievous pooch brings her into contact with a number of the town's characters, including the singing pet store clerk Otis (an engaging Dave Matthews), the spinster librarian Miss Franny (Eva Marie Saint) and the mystical Gloria (Cicely Tyson).