Conservative watchdogs are absolutely correct in saying we need more enriching, wholesome family films. What we don't need are cloying, forced, awkward and ultimately excruciating family films like "Because of Winn-Dixie," which manages to eradicate any meaningful subtleties that are present in Kate DiCamillo's 2001 Newberry Award-winning children's book.

Having established a respectable track record with a varied slate of films including "Dim Sum," "The Joy Luck Club," "Smoke" and "Chinese Box," director Wayne Wang seems out of his depth here, bringing ham-fisted humor and uninspired bluntness to a potentially heartwarming film. It desperately wants to be "To Kill a Mockingbird" for the early-21st century; what we get is a girl-and-her-dog story about as enriching as "Ernest Goes to Camp" — and half as entertaining.

A real pity, because the particulars of DiCamillo's book (adapted with graceless, mawkish sincerity by first-time screenwriter Joan Singleton) suggest a tale with deep wells of childhood longing and parental regret.

Newcomer AnnaSophia Robb plays 10-year-old Opal, whose now-single Baptist father (Jeff Daniels) preaches in a converted convenience store in the dilapidated town of Naomi, Fla. (which looks a lot like Louisiana, where the film was shot). While shopping in the local Winn-Dixie store, Opal impulsively adopts a big, stray mutt (in fact a wonderfully expressive Picardy shepherd from France) and, upon naming him after the store, the pair become inseparable.

The lively dog instantly assumes the role of Great Unifier, bringing Opal together with her melancholy dad (who mourns a failed marriage to an alcoholic wife, now long gone), along with the local librarian (Eva Marie Saint), an eccentric, blind "witch lady" (Cicely Tyson) and a bevy of other Rockwellian townsfolk.

Oh, and let's not forget musician Dave Matthews, playing a harmless ex-convict who drifts into the local pet shop. He's Boo Radley with a six-string guitar and a slightly expanded vocabulary. ("I brought pickles" is a line that Matthews' detractors will be quoting for years.)

Granted, very young filmgoers may find a few scenes endearing, but the movie talks down to them. There's healing and happiness ... and painful slapstick humor, treacly narration and a condescending tone that constantly shortchanges the story's genuine potential.

Because of "Winn-Dixie," Hollywood may prove less inclined to make the kind of quality family film that this should've been.

Jeff Shannon: j.sh@verizon.net