When Zachary Beaver Came to Town

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Adapted from Kimberly Willis Holt's award-winning novel, this is a typical "summer in the life" family film that serves as an admirable vehicle for the former Jerry Maguire and Stuart Little moppet, Jonathan Lipnicki. Here, he's having to face the twin agonies of his singer mother abandoning him for a tilt at fame in Nashville and an unrequited crush on classmate Amanda Alch. However, what transforms the holidays is the arrival in his small Texan town of Sasha Neulinger, a 12-year-old billed by his owner as "The World's Fattest Boy", whom Lipnicki and best buddy Cody Linley decide to liberate. Fun but far too sentimental.