Because of Winn-Dixie

This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Period. My parents wanted to get together and watch a "family" movie before I went back to college. I inwardly moaned thinking that Because of Winn-Dixie was a Beethoven remake, another dog movie. I owe them an apology. The dog is a small part of the emotionally gripping slice-of-life story of a 10-year-old blonde-headed Southern girl who comes to grip with the troubled world around her. Set in what looks like either Louisiana or possibly Everglades Florida, the imagery is vivid and beautiful. The town's odd characters are so real, you feel like you've known them all your life. One of the best things is that the story has a bittersweet ending, just like the "melancholy" feeling created by the local candy and its special ingredient of "sadness." The most powerful scene is where Opal hangs out with an elderly black lady at her home. She points to hundreds of liquor bottles she has hung from a huge oak tree and refers to them as the ghosts of her past sins. Also charming is the lonely pet store guy who can charm the animals buy playing his acoustic guitar. He has a shady past, but Opal learns to judge him by the good things she knows about him, not the negative gossip pervading the town. This is a movie to which I cannot ascribe an accurate plot description. It is one of those movies, however, that is revelatory, edging on epiphany. There are certain points where a certain line, a landscape, or a emotion on a character's face that made me think, "That's it. That's exactly how life is. That's the answer to the question I've been trying to figure out."

Here's something else to figure out: Why does Hollywood rarely produce quality like this anymore, and why is it so hard to find out when they do?

5 stars. I recommend it to you, your Great Grandmother, your second grade bully, and of course, your dog.