The movie was adapted from the writings of Beverly Cleary and was filled with the antics of 9-year-old Ramona, who spends the movie trying to save the family house after her dad loses his job.
From setting up a lemonade stand with her grandmother’s good crystal to car washing to auditioning for the part of a spokesperson in a commercial, Ramona has her ups and downs throughout the movie.
At 9 years old, Ramona has an amazing amount of freedom that I cannot remember having as a child. Much of the movie shows her running around on her own, getting into mischief and her parents seem to have no problem with it.
Her older sister, Beezus, (Selena Gomez) is like many older sisters. She gives her a hard time about almost everything but still helps Ramona when she needs it. She spends a lot of the movie playing on Ramona’s fear of monsters under the bed and creatures that may be lurking in the dark.
Her aunt (Ginnifer Goodwin), who also plays the middle child, is the one person Ramona goes to with all her problems. Her aunt seems to understand and commiserate with Ramona no matter what she is doing.
The movie portrays Ramona’s vivid imagination with clips showing wide canyons and flying in the clouds when she is playing. These images are a little out of place. They get in the way of the flow of the movie.
Also her aunt’s love interest and the love interest of her sister seem to take more prominence in the movie than they should. These do not seem like they should be a focus in a G-rated children’s movie.
The funny moments were only mildly funny and the sad moments were just full of enough angst to make the audience sad. There was no follow through with these scenes. One crisis after another leaves the audience wondering if all these things can happen in the almost two-hour movie and the funny bits could have used a little better script.
The movie is cute but parents could do better taking their kids outside to play instead of going to the movie theater for this film.
Adaptations of books are usually not as satisfying as reading the actual book and this movie proves a good example of this.