Reel Rating: 3 out of 5 Reels
MPAA Rating: G
Released in Theaters: July 2, 2008
Genre: Family, Tweens
Runtime: 100 minutes
Directed by: Patricia Rozema
Cast: Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond, Joan Cusack, Stanley Tucci, Chris O’Donnell, Max Thieriot
Sex/Nudity: Mild flirting
Violence/Gore: Some bickering, bullying, and a chase through the woods.
Profanity: “Moron” is as bad as it gets.
Which Kids Will Like It? Kids 6 and older who like the American Girl dolls and appreciate a good story that revolves around family and tweens.
Will Parents Like It? Yes, this movie offers a good message about helping each other during the hard times.
Review: There’s no doubt that Kit Kittredge: An American Girl glosses over the nitty-gritty dark days of The Depression. But for a G-rated family movie, it shows kids what it would have been like to live in a time when we didn’t have so much “stuff.”
Based on the American Girl doll franchise, this movie stars Abigail Breslin as Kit Kittredge, a 10-year-old aspiring journalist living in Cincinnati with her family during The Depression. But times are hard. Banks are foreclosing on her neighbors’ houses, friends are moving away to live with relatives, and her dad’s (Chris O’Donnell) car dealership has hit the skids.
When her dad goes to Chicago to look for work, Kit and her mom (Julia Ormond) take in a group of eclectic boarders to make ends meet: a mobile librarian (Joan Cusack, doing the ditzy librarian role she does so well), a magician (Stanley Tucci), a dancer (Jane Krakowski), and Kit’s classmate Stirling (Zach Mills) and his mom (Glenne Headley).
Kit would love to write for the Cincinnati Register, so she shows up at their office with story after story, but they’re just not fresh enough, says the burly editor. But when her hobo friend Will (Max Thieriot) is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, Kit and her friends search for clues, and she just might have the story she’s been looking for.
I love the little details of this film – the hand-made clothes; colorful, flimsy fabrics; and vintage cars. I love that everyone works together to make the best of a bad situation. What I didn’t like: most of the characters are one-dimensional – Ormond as the quietly-suffering mom, Tucci as the knows-more-than-he’s-saying magician, O’Donnell as the upbeat dad. And I really wish they’d choose someone else for the ditzy librarian role – Joan Cusack is getting tiresome in those roles.
All that said, though, Breslin manages to carry the movie on her small shoulders, and this is still a charming story with some good lessons about life, love, family, and friendship.
Jane Boursaw is a family entertainment writer specializing in movies and TV. Visit her at Reel Life With Jane; follow her on Twitter; become a friend on Facebook; email jboursaw@charter.net.
