BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE by Wayne Wang
Because of Winn-Dixie (2005)
Director: Wayne Wang. Screenplay: Joan Singleton, from Kate DiCamillo’s novel. Cast: Annasophia Robb, Jeff Daniels, Cicely Tyson, Dave Matthews, Eva Marie Saint
A ten-year-old blond girl with no friends. A kindly preacher, whose inner life has turned into a void following the departure of his wife seven years earlier. An elderly librarian who believes that books are reliable weapons against bears. A lonely blind woman who may or may not be a witch. A taciturn ex-con with a talent for playing the guitar to the animals in his pet store. These are the main characters found in a small Southern town circa nowadays — or anywhere in time, really — that form the human core of Because of Winn-Dixie. However, those two-legged small-town folks all play second fiddle to the real star of the film (from a novel by Kate DiCamillo): a big, slobbering mutt called Winn-Dixie.
Winn-Dixie? What kind of dog name is that? Well, it’s a (misplaced, one might add) homage to the chain of grocery stores found throughout the American South, for that was where the dog was first spotted by the friendless blond girl, Opal (Annasophia Robb). Winn-Dixie, by the way, is a dog that is not only dirty and smart, but he’s also a special canine with the ability to smile (with the help of some digital tampering.) Now, all of the above can be woven into a tale of Southern Gothic whimsy, or it can all be made into a gooey, undercooked Southern pecan pie. Unfortunately, despite several quirky bits, some good acting, and a couple of touching moments, Because of Winn-Dixie comes across as a flat, conventional rendering of an unusual and potentially illuminating story.
Director Wayne Wang takes most of the blame for the film’s failure, for he is clearly either unable — many of the camera set-ups are astonishingly amateurish — or unwilling to keep the film’s sweetness level in check. To the contrary, Wang seems to relish the sugar and syrup so much that he keeps adding every artificial sweetener he can think of. Worse yet, he milks a thoroughly artificial performance out of newcomer Annasophia Robb, a pretty, young girl who is made to act like Shirley Temple minus the curls and the tap-dancing. Coming from Wang, the man who managed to create pathos out of perilously saccharine material such as The Joy Luck Club (1993), that sort of emotionally manipulative approach is a major letdown.
Even so, not all is lost for Because of Winn-Dixie. Although she’s not given much to do, Academy Award-winning veteran Eva Marie Saint (for On the Waterfront in 1954) puts her more than half a century of film experience to good use, for she is a pleasure to watch as the bear-fighting librarian who befriends Opal. For his part, Jeff Daniels displays honesty and the appropriate emotional distance as Opal’s unresponsive father, a man who preaches love and kindness but who is unable to get in touch with his own feelings. In addition, Because of Winn-Dixie even offers one genuinely touching sequence in which the local pet store’s birds and mammals walk freely while listening to some melodious guitar-playing by pop singer Dave Matthews, capably cast as the mysterious pet store manager. Oh and there’s also that cute, unwashed dog with the Colgate smile.
But a whimsical To Kill a Mockingbird this ain’t.
Synopsis:
A preacher (Jeff Daniels) and his 10-year-old daughter, Opal (Annasophia Robb), move to a small town in Florida, where they live in a trailer park. The girl — whose mother had abandoned the family seven years earlier — lives a basically solitary existence, but she makes one good friend while paying a visit to one of the Winn-Dixie grocery stores. There, making a mess of the place, is a big, furry dog in dire need of bath. Opal falls for him, especially when she realizes that the mutt, which she names Winn-Dixie, can actually smile.
The preacher is against having the dog in the trailer, but the friendless girl slowly manages to convince him that Winn-Dixie is crucial for her happiness. In fact, with Winn-Dixie in her life, things begin to change. Opal befriends the taciturn Otis (Dave Matthews), a guitar-playing ex-convict and pet-store manager; Gloria (Cicely Tyson), a blind, elderly woman who lives in utter isolation and who some of the townsfolk think is a witch; and a kind, elderly librarian, Miss Franny (Eva Marie Saint), who claims she fought a bear with a book. In time, even the preacher, who has been out of touch with his feelings since his wife’s departure, will become closer to his daughter.
Notes:
Winn-Dixie stores are found in the American South. Elsewhere in the U.S., they are not well known. After years of losing market share to giant discount stores such as Wal-Mart, in February 2005 Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. filed for bankruptcy protection.
LES SOEURS FÂCHÉES / ME AND MY SISTER
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