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Sweet, old-fashioned and sentimental to a fault, "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" is "Nancy Drew" with training wheels. It's a moist-eyed children's comedy-drama that dares to questions whether today's children should know more about the Great Depression, or a Golden Age when all a plucky, smart girl could ever want out of life is "to be a reporter."
That eternal "Little Miss Sunshine," Abigail Breslin, has the title role, an upper-middle-class child who isn't blind to the hunger and homelessness happening all around her in Cincinnati of 1934. Daddy (Chris O'Donnell) may provide nicely for her and mom (Julia Ormond), but Daddy sells Plymouths. And when half the country is out of work, is the other half buying Plymouths?
The marks of shame in Kit's school are borne by those kids who might be wearing colorful, retailored chicken feed sacks for dresses, with parents who keep chickens in the yard and sell eggs to make ends meet. And then before she knows what hit her -- before Kit can convince cranky newspaper editor Mr. Gibson (Wallace Shawn, a splendid old-school cliche here) to print a word she's tapped out on her typewriter -- her own family is up against it, taking in boarders and hoping that Daddy can find another job in far off Chicago.
It was an era when proud men abandoned families they could no longer support, and every day without a letter from that absent father could be an agony. Kit and her friends keep busy minding the business of the boarders (Jane Krakowski, Stanley Tucci, Glenne Headly and Joan Cusack). Kit is convinced, thanks to her acquaintance of a nice "hobo" boy (Max Thieriot of "Nancy Drew") that all hobos aren't thieving thugs. She comes to know a little of their world just as Cincinnati is gripped by a "hobo crime wave."
The script, based on Valerie Tripp's Kit Kittredge stories (built around those pricey "American Girl" dolls), was written by Ann Peacock, who also adapted "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," and is terrific at explaining and romanticizing the daily circumstances of living in an era when "Brother Can you Spare a Dime?" could have been the national anthem.
"Kit Kittredge" is not a fast-paced affair, and you have to wonder whether the 10-and-under target audience will sit still for it, even if it does have a fancy doll tie-in. But you also have to love the family-friendly message and the history lesson about hard times. "Waste not, want not. There's no shame in leftovers." "There's no shame in families helping each other," or in "selling eggs" or "taking in boarders."
Breslin, a perky presence here as she was in the recent hit "Nim's Island," anchors things ably, with Tucci (as a boarder who's a magician), Krakowski (a leggy dance-instructor), Shawn and Cusack (a librarian) providing some laughs in support.
For what it is and for whom it's intended, "Kit Kittredge" works and works wonderfully. Here's a movie to entertain young moviegoers who someday will hopefully put down their American Girl dolls and study American history.
B+
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
Director: Patricia Rozema
Cast: Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond, Stanley Tucci, Wallace Shawn
Running time: 1 hr., 38 min.
Rating: G
Location: Opened Wednesday in theaters everywhere |
