February 17, 2005 - There is an unspoken but widely accepted axiom in nature that the combination of a dog and a spoonful of peanut butter equals comedy gold; ask any dog owner and they'll confirm there's nothing funnier than watching a pet pooch frantically attempt to swallow down a big brown glob of Peter Pan. Simultaneously, there's a less common tenet which stipulates that a bear and a hardcover copy of War and Peace achieve largely the same effect; while admittedly the two elements are seldom found in the same environment at the same time, the new family film Because of Winn-Dixie captures them in unnatural cohabitation, and proves they are just as formidable as their more familiar counterpart.

Now, what this has to do with the relative merits of a new movie aimed at pre-teens, of course, is a matter for sociologists and careful observers of human-animal interaction; but for our purposes, let's say the connection is both direct and metaphorical. Because Because of Winn-Dixie is not the movie audiences anticipate, even when it acquiesces to convention. Rather, it targets our expectations, satisfies them, and then twists them towards something a bit more strange, a bit more challenging, and ultimately, a bit more satisfying.

Newcomer AnnaSophia Robb stars as Opal, a newcomer to the quiet southern town of Naomi, Florida, who has trouble making friends with the local kids until she adopts a mutt she encounters in the local grocery store. Naming the pup Winn-Dixie in a moment of produce-section inspiration, Opal takes him home to her dad, the Preacher (Jeff Daniels), where he reluctantly offers him sanctuary for a few nights until they can find his rightful owners. What Opal and Winn-Dixie know, however, is that they were made expressly for each other, and no one is going to separate them under any circumstances.

-20th Century Fox

As the pair live out their lazy days playing on the vacant streets of Naomi, they begin encountering different denizens of the town: there's Gloria Dump (Cicely Tyson), a strange old lady who lives in a dilapidated house and who is rumored to be a witch; Otis (Dave Matthews), the manager of a local pet store whose past is shrouded in secrecy; and Miss Franny (Eva Marie Saint), the town librarian, who regales the children with wild tales of bears and their seeming predilection for the works of Leo Tolstoy. With Opal and Winn-Dixie at the center of this disparate collection of rejects and recluses, they collectively soon become a tight-knit group of friends and makeshift family, and re-awaken a magical spirit of togetherness in Naomi's sleepy community.

On the outset, Winn-Dixie seems like something approximating the absolute most formulaic conceit that's cinematically possible; the theatrical preview advertises a dog whose smile is "enhanced" via the magic of computer graphics, and director Wayne Wang doesn't work too hard to dispel the notion that movies about kids and dogs are designed to appeal exclusively to those two groups. But once the gears of the plot start moving, the story takes on a complexity and depth that most family-oriented films just don't possess; Opal and the Preacher are without a mother and wife, for example, and it isn't until late in the film that a reveal is made why she left them (surprisingly enough, it's not because she died at the corner of Sainthood and Perfection).

-20th Century Fox

The rest of the cast members, meanwhile, endure their troubles with a sort of muted cheerfulness that approximates not rote convention but palpable reality. Cicely Tyson's Gloria Dump is a woman who's lived more lifetimes than even the long years of her earthly existence and accepts her shortcomings with grace and perspective, but still thrills at the prospect of a new friend; Dave Matthews' Otis is slightly dim but sweet at heart, discovering an unexpected champion in Opal; and Eva Marie Saint's Miss Franny understands loneliness well enough that she knows the true value of a real companion.

Following the effective pathos of the characters' stories, there's the peanut butter, which makes the introduction of Opal, Winn-Dixie and Gloria that much cuter; it says a lot about the quality of a film when an easy joke works simply because it's placed in the right context. And then, of course, there's that bear and his prized copy of War and Peace; personally, I respect the fact that any animal – much less an ornery grizzly – would attempt to inject a kids film with such lofty literary underpinnings, tangential as they may ultimately be.

-20th Century Fox

But then again, the fact that he's got that book is what elevates the film to levels beyond that of most movies designed for a mainstream or family audience. Wang and co. could have gone for the easy punchline and slapped a spoonful of Jif into Winn-Dixie's CGI-enhanced mouth every time the story reached a lull; instead, they aimed for something just a little weirder, a little sillier, even a little bit more surreal, and uprooted a film that should merely be spinning its wheels from ever getting stuck. So while that dog may be the saving grace of little Opal and the inhabitants of Naomi, Florida, it's safe to say that in more ways than one, Winn-Dixie really works because of a big, brown literate bear.

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