Ramona and Beezus [HD]

A Shockingly Wonderful Film
I'm just going to go out there and say it: Elizabeth Allen's "Ramona and Beezus" is the best film of the summer. It may not be the most visually thrilling ("Inception") or the most complex ("Salt"), but "Ramona and Beezus" is utterly charming from start to finish. In a age when films about children are laborious to endure, this is a bright, sweet and fun film. The acting is genuinely great from the very human cast. Joey King as Ramona hits every note like a seasoned professional. Her back up from John Corbett, Bridget Moynahan, Selena Gomez, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Duhamel and Sandra Oh is so solid and seamless that you believe this lot is a family. And family is what this film does so right. "Ramona and Beezus" captures in spades what "Where the Wild Things Are" tried so desperately to create: what it feels like to be a misunderstood child. It also deals with modern day family issues like the recession, divorce and dating in ways that never ring false. Sure, the film never gets dark...

She Makes Trouble, but She Means Well
Ramona Quimby doesn't mean to cause trouble. If anything, her intentions are purely honorable. It's just that ... well, she's nine years old; she has a lot of energy, her imagination is vivid, and her goals are ambitious. The unfortunate side effect is that she makes her life and the lives of those around her chaotic. Her teenage sister, named Beatrice but saddled with the unwanted nickname of Beezus, thinks she's a pest. Her teacher, so stiffly matter-of-fact, doesn't like it when she makes up her own words, even if they happen to sound a lot more fun. Her mother, busy at home with an infant daughter, would love it if she would learn to control her enthusiasm. Even her father, so pleasant and involved with his children, would sometimes like to see her grow up just a little bit. The only one who seems to understand Ramona is her aunt Bea. Of course, it's easy to understand a rambunctious child when you don't have to live with her every day.

"Ramona and Beezus," adapted from...

Terrific family film
Beverly Cleary's "Ramona" books, as well as her other series and standalones are about half a dozen chapters long. Each one is carefully detailed and paced - even if the event would seem minor to an adult - it's treated with the importance as a child of Ramona's age would view it.

In contrast, this movie pitches Cleary's plots to you like fastballs. For example, first Ramona gets a bad report card and curses (Ramona the Brave), then she makes a mess with toothpaste (Ramona and Her Mother), and then her dad brings home Gummi Bears for her and sister to share (Ramona and Her Father), and so on. There's also some fantasy sequences to emphasize Ramona's runaway imagination and to give the film even more of a child's eye-view perspective.

The overall plot is basically borrowed from "Ramona Forever," as Howie Kemp's annoying Uncle Hobart tries to (re) woo Ramona's Aunt Bea. There's also a storyline (Ramona and Her Father) about their dad losing his job (which...

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