Is it any wonder Kate DiCamillo’s children’s book “Because of Winn-Dixie” is so acclaimed? It does something astonishing. Telling the story of 10-year-old India Opal Buloni and the smiling, wagging dog she rescues, DiCamillo’s sweet volume grapples with sorrow in its many guises – national, marital, social – in ways that treat young people as the emotionally astute and complex people they can be.
“Because of Winn-Dixie” (adapted by first-time screenwriter Joan Singleton, along with her husband, a producer on the film) isn’t as subtle or as trusting of its audience as DiCamillo is of her readers.
Yet with the able assist of an impressive cast, including Cicely Tyson, Eva Marie Saint, rocker Dave Matthews and Jeff Daniels as Opal’s preacher father, it makes a fine argument for what kid-friendly, Christian-compassionate entertainment can be.
Directed by Wayne Wang (“The Joy Luck Club”), the movie still takes on a heady list of issues. Community, reconciliation, loneliness, grief all have their moment beneath the wide expanse of blue sky and billowing clouds in the fictional Florida town of Naomi (played with rundown authenticity by Napoleanville, La.).
Denver local AnnaSophia Robb makes her big-screen debut as Opal – Naomi’s newest resident. Opal’s mother left when she was a toddler, and her father has let Mom remain a mystery. As in the book, the movie rides on Opal’s narration. And Robb, in nearly every scene, shoulders the weight and joys of the movie admirably.
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Daughter of the new pastor of the Open Arms Baptist Church housed in a one-time convenience store, Opal is a bit of a loner until she claims the shaggy stray of the title at the local Winn-Dixie supermarket.
Winn-Dixie has a gift for introducing Opal to the folks soon to become her friends. There’s Miss Franny (Saint), the librarian and the granddaughter of a Confederate soldier. Dave Matthews plays Otis, the shy pet-store clerk who gives Opal a job.
Perhaps Opal’s closest friend is Gloria Dump (Tyson), an elderly, nearly blind resident who the two Dewberry boys say is a witch. Though the movie never mentions it, Gloria is likely the granddaughter of slaves. And Opal reading “Gone With the Wind” to Gloria should provide educators and parents with a teaching opportunity or two.
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One is tempted to complain that the remarkable melancholy with which DiCamillo infused “Because of Winn-Dixie” is muted in here. But that’s not quite the case.
Miss Franny’s tale about her grandfather Littmus, the Civil War veteran who came home to such abject loss he decides to make a candy, is still central. Like the protagonist of “Like Water for Chocolate,” the grieving survivor mixes his sorrow into his confection. Although the factory has closed down, leaving the town poorer in a couple of different ways, Miss Franny has a stash.
The Littmus Lozenge makes “Because of Winn-Dixie” a kid’s primer in magical realism. When little Sweetie Pie Thomas (child star Dakota Fanning’s sister Elle) pops the candy in her mouth, she just as quickly spits it out. Her reason provides one of the deadpan funniest lines in the film.
Still, the filmmakers have stirred in an unnecessary ingredient. With the addition of a bitter landlord and a pompous police officer, they’ve thrown “unfairness” into the recipe. No doubt, that’s a lesson kids will require. But the two, here for added drama and comic relief, are the clumsiest gloss on a near-perfect tale.
A more inventive use of film’s power comes when the director uses grainy footage to illustrate Miss Franny’s tale of a bear that visited her library one summer afternoon long ago.
The flashback is a funny and strange celebration of books and of film. And that’s mighty clever.
Film critic Lisa Kennedy can be reached at 303-820-1567 or lkennedy@denverpost.com.
“Because of Winn-Dixie”
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PG for thematic elements and brief mild language|1 hour, 46 minutes|FAMILY|directed by Wayne Wang; written by Joan Singleton, based on Kate DiCamillo’s novel; photography by Karl Walter Lindenlaub; starring AnnaSophia Robb, Jeff Daniels, Cicely Tyson, Dave Matthews, Eva Marie Saint, Courtney Jines, Nick Price, Luke Benward, Elle Fanning|Opens today at area theaters
