Because of Winn-Dixie

Because of Winn-Dixie (Director: Wayne Wang)

Wang's most notable film is The Joy Luck Club, and then he did the highly enjoyable Smoke before making tank-jobs Anywhere But Here and Maid in Manhattan. This film is based on the Kate DiCamillo novel.

Kids movies try so hard to be critically bulletproof nowadays, that they open themselves up for criticism. Usually, they take on themes in a way that kids can learn a lesson, and thus, the movie becomes a beacon for family entertainment and values, and hence, we shouldn't be too hard on it.

To me, that's wrong. It means that you can make any movie as long as it has no dirty words or sex or violence or anything else you can rail against, and not include a worthwhile adventure or compelling story. Because of Winn-Dixie has no sense of adventure or discovery to it, like the fantastic Holes (once again, this link goes to a rapid-fire set of reviews from back in the day) did. It's merely a means for watching a well-trained animal do "funny" things like attack people and lick them, and make a mess of things, and burp, while the cast put on their best when-I'm-around-kids expressions.

The story involves cute-girl Opal (Annasophia Robb), who has moved to a new town and has no friends, but then claims a runaway dog at a Winn-Dixie establishment is hers, and she begs and pleads to her preacher father (Jeff Daniels) to keep him. He doesn't think it's a good idea, and neither does the crotchety landlord of their budget just-above-a-trailer-park confines, so the decision is made to keep him until someone else can take the dog. During this period of time, the dog always seems to poke into misunderstood people's lives, and Opal befriends each and every one of them, including Miss Franny (Eva Marie Saint), Otis (Dave Matthews, in the second rock-star performance of the weekend), and Gloria (Cicely Tyson).

All of these people offer their pearls of wisdom from their hard lives, and Opal tries to relate some of those to her own life and her father, abandoned by her mother at the age of three. It's all good-intentioned family entertainment, but like I said, it's not thrillingly told. I'd give the scene-stealer award to Matthews, who speaks in an engaging manner and includes some folk guitar accompaniment to boot.

So, in the realm of dog stories, Wilson Rawls' Where the Red Fern Grows it's not. You want a prime example of a family story that meant something and was entertaining to boot, that's what you need to shoot for.