Movie Review: 'Ramona and Beezus' refreshingly low-tech, smart
"Ramona and Beezus" is that rarest of summer multiplex enterprises: a G-rated movie for kids and parents that isn't juiced by computer-generated effects or noisy explosions and isn't crowded with cutesy animated creatures or comic-book superheroes and villains.
It's refreshingly human-scale and low-tech. It's literate and funny. And it displays an embracing empathy for both the frustrations and confusions of childhood and the responsibilities and confusions of adulthood.
Not surprising since it's drawn from the novels of much-honored, best-selling children's author Beverly Cleary, a wise and wonderful writer (and former librarian) who in more than 30 books over 50 years has spoken to several generations of loyal readers.
In "Ramona and Beezus," the first big-screen adaptation of her work, it's highly likely that grandparents, parents and youngsters in theater audiences are familiar with her characters and stories.
Adroitly adapted from several of Cleary's popular "Ramona" books and deftly directed by Elizabeth Allen ("Aquamarine"), this tale brings to vivid life the author's teeming, beloved Klickitat Street in suburban Portland, Ore. There, the Quimby family resides in cozy if chaotic domesticity. Loving parents Robert and Dorothy (John Corbett, Bridget Moynahan) patiently ride herd over big sister Beezus (Disney star Selena Gomez), cooing baby Roberta, lay-around cat Picky-Picky and the pesky, imaginative, nonconformist Ramona (newcomer Joey King).
