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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

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Momma's Man
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Christmas Tale, A
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Happy-Go-Lucky
83
Trouble the Water
83
U2 3D
82
Tell No One
82
Rachel Getting Married
82
Frozen River
82
Let the Right One In
81
Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father
79
Stranded: I Have Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains
78
I've Loved You So Long
77
Pray the Devil Back to Hell
76
Betrayal - Nerakhoon, The
75
Pool, The
73
Girl Cut in Two, A
72
I Served the King of England
70
I.O.U.S. A
69
Ashes of Time Redux
69
Fear(s) of the Dark
68
August Evening
67
Synecdoche, New York
64
Appaloosa
63
JCVD
63
Eden
63
Changeling
62
Duchess, The
59
We Are Wizards
57
Special
57
Sixty Six
56
Religulous
55
Boy in the Striped Pajamas, The
55
What Just Happened?
54
Battle in Seattle
54
Good Dick
53
RocknRolla
51
Morning Light
50
Breakfast with Scot
47
How About You
47
Choke
46
Dukes, The
43
Tru Loved
43
Gardens of the Night
41
Cthulhu
40
Igor
40
Other End of the Line, The
34
My Name Is Bruce
34
Otto; or Up with Dead People
32
Repo! The Genetic Opera
31
Hounddog
30
Guitar, The
28
Fireproof
27
Lake City
26
House of the Sleeping Beauties
26
Filth and Wisdom
xx
Dostana
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Nobel Son
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
|
Because of Winn-Dixie
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.
FILM:
MPAA RATING: PG for thematic elements and brief mild language
Starring
Annasophia Robb,
Jeff Daniels,
Cicely Tyson,
Dave Matthews,
Eva Marie Saint,
Courtney Jines,
Nick Price, Luke Benward,
and
Elle Fanning
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. (20th Century Fox)
| GENRE(S): |
Comedy
|
Drama
|
Family/Kids
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Joan Singleton
Kate DiCamillo (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Wayne Wang
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: August 9, 2005
Video: August 9, 2005
Theatrical: February 18, 2005
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
105 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
Heartland Award of Excellence, 2004 Heartland Film Festival

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
88
Premiere
Peter Debruge
Most likely chosen for its shaggy-dog looks, Winn-Dixie is actually a great deal more special than you'd expect, a fitting analogy for a film no parent should be too quick to dismiss.

83
Entertainment Weekly
Lisa Schwarzbaum
To Winn-Dixie's great credit, both as a book and as a dandy, dignified movie, there's nothing condescendingly lesson-like in the wisdom India acquires.

75
USA Today
Claudia Puig
A sweet, family-friendly retelling of a touching and funny Newbery Award-winning children's book.

75
San Francisco Chronicle
Peter Hartlaub
Matthews holds his own with his experienced co-stars, and his half- talking/half-singing explanation of his criminal past is the movie's best scene.

75
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
In pace, sensibility, and big, beating heart, this is a child's first indie film, and it's the better for it.

75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
The casting of Daniels, Tyson and Saint, all of whom underplay effortlessly, was shrewd.

75
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
Should satisfy its 8- to 12-year-old target demographic.

70
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Robb is remarkably assured; there isn't a false note in her performance.

70
Dallas Observer
Melissa Levine
Both screenwriter Joan Singleton and director Wang take the time to draw real people and feeling relationships.

60
Variety
Lael Loewenstein
Uneven though it is, Because of Winn-Dixie, based on Kate Di Camillo's novel, is tough to dislike.

60
TV Guide
Angel Cohn
A sweet film with no big action moments may be a hard sell to young male audiences, but it's nevertheless a quality story that the whole family can watch together.

58
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Paula Nechak
It's a methodical, friendly fairy tale in which everyone is good and the outcome is a given.

50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Keith Phipps
Some might even find the leisurely pace a nice break from the rapid-fire approach favored by most kids' entertainment.

50
Village Voice
Ben Kenigsberg
The story seems awkwardly positioned between coming-of-age realism and whimsical fantasy.

50
Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Limiting the potential overripeness of the material with tact and sincerity, he (Wang) generally makes the most of his resourceful cast; only the dog overacts.

50
Austin Chronicle
Marjorie Baumgarten
Veterans Eva Marie Saint and Cicely Tyson make welcome appearances.

50
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Sweet and warm-hearted, but there is another film with a similar story that is boundlessly better, and that is "My Dog Skip" (2000).

50
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
Jeff Daniels is a compelling-enough actor to lift almost any film out of mediocrity, but even he has his work cut out for him.

50
The New York Times
Anita Gates
A harmless, pleasant comic drama, but elements that may have seemed delightfully eccentric on the page take on unfortunate new tones when translated to film.

50
Christian Science Monitor
David Sterritt
Bland, amiable, innocuous.

50
Los Angeles Times
Kevin Crust
Never quite works as a film. The failure to create appropriate cinematic metaphors reduces it to "happiness is a warm puppy" superficiality.

50
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Thanks to director Wayne Wang ("The Joy Luck Club"), there are also artistic touches that keep this movie from sticking to the roof of the mouth the way peanut butter does to Opal's pet.

50
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
Only mildly diverting and way too long for a movie aimed at kids.

50
The Hollywood Reporter
Michael Rechtshaffen
Can't decide what it wants to be when it grows up.

40
Empire
Anna Smith
It means well, but it's all just a bit too tired a formula - even by the standards of a kids film. Put this one in the top field to 'rest'.

38
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
The problem is that director Wayne Wang seems deaf to the tonal differences between coming-of-age, magic realism and children's comedy.

38
Chicago Tribune
Robert K. Elder
Tries hard to be sweet but plays like "Pollyanna" with fleas.


The average user rating for this movie is 7.9 (out of 10) based on 25 User Votes
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