A 10-year-old girl, abandoned by her mother when she was three, moves to a small town in Florida with her father, a preacher. While there, she adopts a stray dog whom she names after the local supermarket where he was found. With her goofy pooch by her side, she meets an eclectic group of townspeople and rekindles an almost lost relationship with her father. [TRAILER]

STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

Opal (AnnaSophia Robb) begs her dad (Jeff Daniels) to tell her ten things about her mother, who abandoned them both when she was young. She chats with Otis (Dave Matthews) about his time in prison. She learns Gloria (Cicely Tyson) had a drinking problem. She discovers that her friend’s brother died a year earlier.

Sure, she also has a dog who’s cute, cuddly and wonderful, but ultimately irrelevant. The real magic of “Because of Winn-Dixie” is not her furry friend, but that it treats its audience like grown-ups.

I don’t believe in ignoring the target market of a film. “Boogeyman” was made to give people a few jumps. “Hitch” was released last weekend so couples would have something to see that would make them feel warm and sappy inside.

“Winn-Dixie” is made for kids and families. It is a movie about a little girl finding herself, and the dog that helps her do it. There is an expected formula to this light-hearted fare, and “Winn-Dixie” does indeed seem contrived as Opal encounters one life-changing moment after the next.

Yet it is rare when a children’s film uses these encounters to engage a conversation more complicated than “you can be anything you want” or “growing up is hard to do.” Amid modern blockbusters, where bankability is frequently becoming the sole point of creation, “Winn-Dixie” is the serious, dignified and respectful exception to the rule.

Comparisons to “My Dog Skip” are inevitable, and the main difference is that “Skip” was a potpourri of memories compiled by a man reminiscing about his childhood. In “Winn-Dixie” it sounds more like a little girl remembering last summer, the narrator only briefly coming into a story told mostly in a linear trajectory.

Surprisingly, the dog is the worst part. Everything in the film does indeed happen because of Winn-Dixie, named for the convenient store where Opal’s preacher father conducts Sunday’s makeshift church services, but unlike “Skip,” it is really not about a girl’s relationship with her new dog, although that’s part of it, but rather her interactions with her father, her peers and her community that is instigated by the dog.

That said, it’s unfortunate that screenwriters Kate DiCamillo and Joan Singleton, and director Wayne Wang (“Maid in Manhattan”), spend as much time on Opal’s relationship with Winn-Dixie as they do. The strength here is watching Opal mature on her own, often apart from her pet, and when the drama later leans on the bond between this girl and her dog, it comes up short because we really know she’d be fine without him.

Robb is quite capable in a part that asks her to be both vulnerable and strong, naïve and maturing, and always learning. Daniels plays it low-key, as he should, in a role that asks him to be the mysterious and distant adult figure in a world seen from the child’s point of view. And Matthews is the surprising success here as the quirky ex-con and pet shop manager, playing his guitar in multiple scenes and creating the film’s sweetest moment as he sings to Opal an inspirational melody.

Wang deserves credit for really bringing the film down to Opal’s level. Note the handheld camera in the scene where she almost loses Winn-Dixie, her only friend, and the occasional asides that monitor Opal’s growth as she rides her bike through town. The story’s climax is a child’s triumph, as she succeeds simply in bringing people together.

“Winn-Dixie” is an earnest, good-hearted movie about good-hearted people, brimming with the hope that a sweet, idealistic girl can still help the adults remember who they used to be. Opal says at the outset that she has a story to tell – a good one – about one summer in her life. And she’s right.

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