'Ramona and Beezus' Film Review

Ramona and Beezus is the perfect film for all ages. Based around the Ramona series by Beverly Cleary and directed by Elizabeth Allen, it followsthe energetic, imaginative and accident-prone nine year old Ramona Quimby (Joey King) and her overachieving big sister Beezus( Selena Gomez) through their fights and make ups. The plot revolves around Ramona and Beezus’ father (John Corbett) losing his job and the family running into money problems, which may unfortunately relate to many families at this time, however it tries to show the brighter side to this situation. This causes Ramona to try and do everything she can to try and save the family home, which involves her getting into a lot of mischief along the way. 

I think Gomez and King appear like perfect sisters; you believe their fights and love their make ups. Newcomer Joey King carries the film perfectly and sellsRamona's particular mix of earnestness and mischievousness flawlessly. You always believe her when she says she's sorry for her latest misadventure, even though you know another one is just around the corner.King manages to turn, in seconds, from infectious grinning to tear- jerking emotion while acting out some of the busy scenes which include- losing a pet, throwing up at school and moving house all squeezed into 104 minutes. In Cleary’s books Beezus is portrayed as image conscious, however Gomez may be too pretty to get this across to the audience well enough and I think Allen lacks the ability to capture the fact that Ramona acts up the way she does (emptying a full tube of toothpaste into the sink) because she is frustrated at being the middle child, she is an underachiever compared to Beezus and feels like she doesn’t get enough attention because of her baby sister Roberta (twins Aila McCubbing and Zanti McCubbing.)

There are also scenes in the film for the older audiences which include Ramona and Beezus’ aunt Bea (Ginnifer Goodwin) flirting on her old flame, Hobart, (Josh Duhamel.) There are also scenes that include Beezus trying to impress her long-term friend, Henry Huggins, (Hutch Dano), which doesn’t go well when she drinks some lemonade with a wasp in it and ends up spitting it all over Henry.

Although I enjoyed the whole film I do think that a film series may have suited the books better to show the different adventures in more detail, but instead screenwriter Laurie Clark and Nick Pustay have picked memorable moments from Cleary’s eight book series and fashioned them into one single film. In my opinion Clark and Pustay have picked moments that show Ramona’s sense of imaginatively seamlessly with the animated daydream sequences which transport the audience into her world and allows all ages to feel like and child again.

I would recommend this film to families and children aged 6-13.

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Ellie X