(7) Days of Zooey - Day 1 (#641.)

I'm wild about Zooey.  Zooey is Zooey Deschanel, whose entire existence helped coin the phrase "adorkable," which as it suggests means dorky and adorable at the same time.  Yet she's much more than that.  It's been fun watching her grow up.  The daughter of cinematographer Caleb Deschanel and younger sister of Emily Deschanel from Bones, Zooey might have been a classic case of Hollywood nepotism, all fame and no talent, and yet she was blessed with the it-factor, an undeniable screen presence that she took years to cultivate and perfect, sometimes frustrated with the parts that seemed all of a kind, keeping her just outside of her deserved spotlight.  The next seven days are how I became a hopelessly devoted fan.

Big Trouble is a 2002 ensemble comedy headlined by Tim Allen, based on a book by Dave Barry.  To my mind there's everything to love about it.  The whole cast is magical.  And in that mix is a very young Zooey Deschanel.  She doesn't have her trademark look yet.  But she's clearly already all her own, sardonic and lovable at the same time.  It's a small part, perhaps not terribly noticeable when you've got Allen and Patrick Warburton and Rene Russo and Stanley Tucci and Tom Sizemore and Dennis Farina and Janeane Garofalo and Ben Foster and Omar Epps and Jason Lee.  And Johnny Knoxville!  And Sofia Vergara!  And yet there's Zooey, the target of juvenile romantic gestures from Ben Foster (to be Ben Foster!).  Frankly I'm at a loss as to how more people aren't obsessed with her.