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Because of Winn-Dixie (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:115
Fresh:62
Rotten:53
Average Rating:5.8/10
Consensus: An old-fashioned, if bland, adaptation of Kate DiCamillo's novel.
Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins
Genre: Childrens
Synopsis: Based on the perennial best seller, BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE tells the story of a lonely young girl who adopts an orphaned dog she names Winn-Dixie (for the supermarket where she found him). The bond... Based on the perennial best seller, BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE tells the story of a lonely young girl who adopts an orphaned dog she names Winn-Dixie (for the supermarket where she found him). The bond between the girl and her special companion brings together the people in a small Florida town and heals her own troubled relationship with her father. Twentieth Century Fox and Walden Media present BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE a Wayne Wang Film adapted from the popular and much-honored novel of the same name by Kate DiCamillo. Among the book’s awards is the coveted Newbery Honor. Wang directs from a screenplay by Joan Singleton. The Producers are Trevor Albert and Joan Singleton, and the Executive Producer is Ralph Singleton. The village of Napoleonville, Louisiana stands in for the story’s fictional Naomi, Florida. Sleepy Naomi is a place where people have forgotten how to share their sadness and their joy. But Opal and Winn-Dixie might have something to say about that. Jeff Daniels, Cicely Tyson, Dave Matthews and Eva Marie Saint star as the somewhat eccentric adults who benefit from Opal and Winn-Dixie’s bumpy summer of discovery. Newcomer AnnaSophia Robb won the role of Opal following an intensive talent hunt. "Opal and Winn-Dixie have something in common," says AnnaSophia. "She doesn’t have a mother and he doesn’t have a home. They both want somebody to love and somebody to love them. And, as a team, they begin to realize that other people just might want the same things." Winn-Dixie guides Opal into places where magic dozes under a coat of dusty disappointment and awakens the people hiding there. Things begin to change day by day under the summer sun – in a funky pet store, a musty library, a drab mobile home, a ramshackle house and a convenience store-turned temple of worship. --© 20th Century Fox [More]
Starring: Jeff Daniels, AnnaSophia Robb, Dave Matthews, Cicely Tyson
Starring: Jeff Daniels, AnnaSophia Robb, Dave Matthews, Cicely Tyson, Eva Marie Saint, Elle Fanning, Courtney Jines
Director: Wayne Wang
Director: Wayne Wang
Screenwriter: John Singleton
Producer: Trevor Albert, Joan Singleton
Composer: Rachel Portman
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Reviews for Because of Winn-Dixie
Relentlessly cute and adorable, it at least has a slight sour edge that gives us above-8s something to cling to. Briefly.
The story seems awkwardly positioned between coming-of-age realism and whimsical fantasy.
Just the latest quasi-magic-realist, two-birds-with-one-stone shrine to non-traditional families and the power of myth
Most of the time, you can't go wrong with kids and dogs. Then there's Because of Winn-Dixie.
The moment is so identical to a pivotal scene in Lars von Trier's Dogville that it makes one wonder if director Wayne Wang is intentionally paying homage.
Winn-Dixie is simply an episodic film, and not a particularly inviting one at that.
There’s bad, there’s “so bad it’s good”… and then there’s this moronic film.
It’s like one half of a Willa Cather novel: The moral backbone is there but its social spine has been ripped out.
Though [Jeff] Daniels brings his usual quiet nuance and understated comedy to the role of the grieving preacher, there’s no redeeming this slavishly folksy betrayal of what can be dimly discerned of an absorbing and original tale of pain overcome.
Nothing more than a series of scenes, first cute, then sentimental, then funny, and then the cycle repeats itself.
Such a misfire that even the title can think of nothing else but to blame the poor dog.
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