Word: winne
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...estranged father. What could go wrong with this tried-and-true feel-good recipe of friendship and adolescence? Not much, but clearly not much can go very right either. With a clichéd plot and cardboard cut-out characters, 20th Century Fox’s Because of Winn-Dixie, based on Kate DiCamillo’s New York Times bestseller novel of the same name, is an anti-climactic wallow in what never quite approaches small-town charm...
Everything changes one day as Opal discovers an orphaned dog while running errands for her father. And so as banjos and guitars wail away in the country-twanged soundtrack, Winn-Dixie (named for the supermarket where she found him) enters the life of Naomi, Florida...
...Winn-Dixie is a stray who also happens to be perfectly trained to sit, smile, whimper, and howl in harmony to church hymns on command. With the clichéd carefree curiosity of a dog, he proceeds to win the hearts of the townspeople and mend their relationships...
...crooning Dave Matthews, whose audience consists of parrots, rabbits, and the occasional goat. As the movie’s sole instrument for bringing in the teenage masses, Matthews’ character is, appropriately, depicted as the “magic man”, whose music eventually brings a wandering Winn-Dixie home...
...sadness of motherless Opal is dull, the changes of heart haphazard, and the pivotal realization – that townsfolk seemingly so different nevertheless share in common a love for Winn-Dixie – falls flat. And no matter how many times director Wayne Wang (The Joy Luck Club) bridges his scenes with beautiful images of towering oak trees draped with Spanish moss and childhood picnics set against a sun-drenched palette, the film never inspires any more than a dry chuckle or a single sniffle...