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PrintIt's so sentimental and sweet that you can almost forgive the kids' comedy "Ramona and Beezus" for not being funny enough.
This adaptation of Beverly Cleary's beloved 1950s novels about "Ramona the Pest," her sister, Beatrice (Beezus, to her), and her life in the same world that Henry Huggins and his dog Ribsy inhabit emphasizes childhood conflicts, confusion and emotions over slapstick. But the movie takes too long to settle on that tone and blows laughs.
- Starring: Joey King, Selena Gomez.
- Rating: G.
Ramona (Joey King) shares a room with the sister she's always called Beezus (Selena Gomez). Beezus isn't shy about mocking her sister's fears -- monsters under the bed, for instance. The 9-year-old has a vivid imagination. Hanging from a swing, she sees a vast canyon below. But she's undaunted.
"It's good to scare yourself once in a while" is her motto.
Contractors building an addition to her house are a cause for celebration, school projects are opportunities to show off, problems between mom and dad can be smoothed over if she just takes over the cooking.
Peopling Ramona's world are her droll, seemingly humorless teacher (Sandra Oh), her parents (John Corbett and Bridget Moynahan) and her favorite Aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin of "Big Love" and "Walk the Line").
But Aunt Bea's old beau, played by the effortlessly charming Josh Duhamel, is back. Ramona worries she'll be "reeled back in, like a bass."
That possible romance takes center stage for much of the movie, suggesting that director Elizabeth Allen ("Aquamarine") was more at home with the mushy stuff than with a child's antics.
First love between Beezus and Henry Huggins also earns more screen time than is warranted in a movie with Ramona's name first in the title. There are more laughs in the average episode of Ms. Gomez's "Wizards of Waverly Place" TV show than in this.
But like other near-misses in the recent toddler-to-tyke-to-tween cinema ("Kit Kittredge" ), this one gamely wrestles with "growing up" matters -- unemployment, life-altering decisions. Ms. Allen gives the movie heart and heft even if she never quite develops the funny stuff.
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