Because of Winn-Dixie
directed by Wayne Wang
screenplay by Joan Singleton
based on the novel by Kate DiCamillo

starring Annasophia Robb, Jeff Daniels, Cicely Tyson, Dave Mathews, Eva Marie Saint, Elle Fanning

          We don’t need another Dakota Fanning. The young actress is too smart for her own good and she seems to appear in any movie that requires her talents. Her greatest role, helped by her creepy prematurity, was in the Taken miniseries where she played a girl who was part alien. She might in fact be part alien. On the forums of READ Magazine, she is a sure bet to win a child-actor based Battle Royale.
       And now in Because of Winn-Dixie we get another Dakota Fanning. I don’t mean the young newcomer Annasophia Robb, though in some ways the less effective but conventionally cuter actress serves as a substitute for the hard working star –this movie must be too small for her current prestige. I am referring, rather, to Elle Fanning, the little sister of Dakota. Until recently, Elle filled the necessary job of appearing as the younger version of characters played by her elder. Disney even had the bright idea of having both sisters voice the beloved sisters for the English dubbing of My Neighbor Totoro. Now, and in last year’s The Door in the Floor, Elle Fanning is getting roles of her own and I couldn’t be more afraid. Will she exhibit the same unstoppable powers as her big sis? Luckily she doesn’t seem so smart in Winn-Dixie, but that could just be a good performance. Plus Joan Singleton’s script allows for little development of her minor character.
        Fanning’s part isn’t the only one lacking. All the people who inhabit Kate DiCamillo’s award-winning children’s book are adapted without adequate dimension. We are introduced to each by Opal (Robb) with simple attributes –Fanning’s Sweetie Pie Thomas is referred to as little more than a thumbsucking, walking baby –and we must take her word as narrator. Eventually everyone’s general sadness is exposed without much detail and nobody is given climax or closure. Instead the drama at the end concerns Opal’s selfish neediness for Winn-Dixie, a canine with more than enough personality to distract young audiences away from those characters without any.
        Because of Winn-Dixie is harmless and I would rather children see this than Son of the Mask which opens the same day. Most of those who attend will have already read the book and many will see the film with their schools. I haven’t read the novel but I imagine it more substantial with its open-mindedness and morality than simply a small town yarn about a girl and her dog. I was reminded, of course, of To Kill a Mockingbird, a definite influence on DiCamillo. Jeff Daniels is the passive anti-Atticus, though, and Robb lacks the innocent wonder of Scout. If schools are really so accommodating as to bring classes to see Winn-Dixie, I hope that teachers can expand on the themes of the book and the movie and maybe even spark a discussion of the differences between the mediums’ approaches. Then I hope the kids read and watch To Kill a Mockingbird a few years later.

Winn-Dixie delivers the results of the "Next Dakota Fanning" award. 

Expectation Key


there's no possible way I will ever see this

I might eventually see this but I'm not really expecting much

anticipating the release of this one but I'm sure to be left unsatisfied

such high expectation of this film only leaves room for disappointment