RAMONA AND BEEZUS

RAMONA AND BEEZUS (Rated G):  Strange sugar-laden flick, made almost entirely by female Canadian cast & crew (filmed in Vancouver) that supposedly focuses primarily on the antics of a 10-year-old girl who plows recklessly into one disaster after another while her family's financial and romantic situations share dominance - leaning more heavily on the funny incidents and the various love relationships than the love/hate sibling relationship between the youngest girl Ramona (Joey King) and older sib Beezus (Selena Gomez).

The film version, taken from a series of children's stories by Beverly Cleary, about the denizens of Portland's Klickitat Street, leans most heavily on the 7th book, told mainly by Beezus (so-called when Ramona, who couldn't pronounce "Beatrice," called her "Beezus" and it stuck - cute, huh?)  It's that kind of movie, cloyingly cute, consistently drenched in goodie-goodie ambiance enough, were it to proceed longer than its 104-minutes, to develop diabetes in the viewers.

Written for the screen by Laurie Craid & Nicky Pustay, it puts Ramona's wild antics more in the limelight than her older sister, and directed by Elizabeth Allen the focal point relies heavily on Ramona's casually ridiculous demeanor, penchant for making up words, & wildly hyper-active actions (washing a jeep turns it into a maze of colors,  getting hair gummed just before being photographed for her school portrait, crashing through the ceiling of the family home at a most improper moment, etc.) add up to devastating consequences which the entire community of family & friends accept with laddy-dah gaiety.  No unpleasant situation - losing their home, plunging into financial tragedy - causes any more worry than getting stranded in the school's play yard equipment.  Hey, they all know it will work out just fine & dandy, so why sweat the big stuff?

Produced by Denise Di Novi & Alison Greenspan, edited by Jane Moran, filmed adequately by John Bailey and overloaded with a variety of pop tunes by Mark Mothersbaugh, the movie (budgeted for a mere 15 million dollars) hit most screens on July 23, grossed nearly twice that amount by the time of our screening, so it seemed to have found its audience among femmes young & not-so-young.  There's a certain charm in its hyper activity & naivety if one accepts that as cuddly entertainment.  (Grade:  C+)