8/13/10

Ramona and Beezus

Here is a sugary sweet little film based on Beverly Cleary's popular schoolgirl, Ramona Quimby. This McMinnville, Oregon author sets her series in Portland, so we North westerners smile when we see that Ramona's family lives on Klickitat Ave.

Ramona, portrayed by Joey King (on TV since she was four), is an imaginative, lively little girl who can't help but make problems wherever she goes. Her ultra-patient parents are played by Bridget Moynahan ("Noise") and John Corbett ("Sex and the City"), while Selena Gomez ("Another Cinderella Story") is her big sister.

The big issue for our loving family is Dad's recent unemployment and Mom's new part-time job. Ramona is afraid he will divorce their mother and move to Tacoma like the father of one of her classmates, so she launches a number of money-making schemes which signal one disaster after another.

Rounding out the cast are: Sandra Oh ("Grey's Anatomy") as her exasperated school teacher; Ginnifer Goodwin ("He's Just Not That Into You") as her unmarried aunt; Josh Duhamel ("When in Rome") as the neighbor who wants to reel in her aunt like a sea bass! The most repugnant thing that happens is when Ramona gets raw egg in her hair on School Picture Day, so the children in the audience weren't trauma- tized, the story is upbeat and everyone lives happily ever after....