Early on in ?Ramona and Beezus? you come across a character mostly unused in modern popular culture ? The Decent Father. Most recent father characters fall into one of four archetypes in the following order of frequency: (1) Incompetent Dad ? Homer Simpson and Peter Griffen have influence a generation of screenwriters to portray fathers as dithering man-children ? Clark Griswald comes immediately to mind, (2) Superfluous Dad ? writers throw in a dad who has few lines, shows little emotion and are played by indistinguishable journeyman actors - ?The Blind Side? is the best recent example, (3) Absent Dad ? the father character is played as negative space, his absence a major plot point ? ?Precious?? is the best recent example and (4) Angry Dad ? the father is either openly evil or secretly evil ? an older example is ?Say Anything.? The father/child relationship has been so degraded that the most honest relationship portrayal out there is Miley Cyrus and her real father Billy Ray on their Disney television show. So even though the film is overly long, often dull and lacks a compelling overarching plot driver (there is the subplot about whether the Quimby?s will lose their house but it is half-hearted), I am going to recommend it. The film deals with real relationships (the parents fight), real problems (a record number of people are facing foreclosure) and job loss (15.7million people are facing this in the U.S. as of this writing). Let?s hope the film is successful and we see more of this type of light family dramedy.
Review of Ramona and Beezus
