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"KIT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL"
(2008) (Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond) (G)

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QUICK TAKE:
Drama: A young girl, desirous of being a reporter, writes about her experiences living during the Great Depression, including her father moving to another city to look for work, her mother taking in boarders, and the lives of hobos.
PLOT:
It's 1934 and Margaret Mildred Kittredge, a.k.a. Kit (ABIGAIL BRESLIN), is a 10-year-old girl who dreams of being a reporter for her hometown paper, the Cincinnati Register, when not inducting new kids into her tree house club along with fellow member Ruthie Smithens (MADISON DAVENPORT). Unlike Ruthie's dad who runs the local bank and is foreclosing various homeowners, Kit's father (CHRIS O'DONNELL) is having problems making ends meet at his car dealership.

Nonetheless, Kit's mom (JULIA ORMOND) always tries to look on the bright side of things, even when Uncle Hendrick (KENNETH WELSH) thinks the family is living beyond their means. Of course, they're doing better than many, including young hobos Will Shepherd (MAX THIERIOT) and Countee (WILLOW SMITH) who offer to work in exchange for food, an agreement that doesn't sit well with snooty snob Louise Howard (GLENNE HEADLY).

When Kit's dad loses his job, he ends up moving to Chicago to look for work, while her mom has no choice but to take in boarders, including Louise and her young son Stirling (ZACH MILLS) who defends Kit from verbal taunts coming from Roger (AUSTIN MACDONALD), the class bully. Other boarders include mobile librarian Miss Bond (JOAN CUSACK); dance instructor Miss Dooley (JANE KRAKOWSKI), magician Jefferson J. Berk (STANLEY TUCCI) and later his brother, Freidreich (DYLAN SMITH).

While that somewhat extends her "family," Kit is worried that she and her mom will end up having to sell eggs, an act the girl sees as meaning one's hit rock bottom. Accordingly, she tries to pitch her stories to the local paper's city editor, Mr. Gibson (WALLACE SHAWN), especially when she learns she can get paid for any that are published.

With public sentiment toward the hobos, including Will and Countee who live in a "hobo jungle" with the likes of Shelton Pennington (COLIN MOCHRIE) and many others, Kit decides to focus on their story. Yet, when crimes start occurring and the hobos are fingered as the culprits, Kit tries to get to the bottom of the issue, all while hoping that her dad will soon come home.

OUR TAKE: 6.5 out of 10
Perhaps it's due to the protective parental instinct that most adults possess, but many grown-ups feel the need to shield kids from storytelling - be that in book, theater, TV or movie form -- that they deem inappropriate for certain age groups. I'm not referring to most of the adult material (profanity, sex, violence, etc.) meticulously covered in our parental reviews, but rather storylines and themes that don't seem particularly kid-friendly.

Of course, one often forgets that classic children's storytelling of old was filled with all sorts of dark material, particularly from The Brothers Grimm and tales that stemmed from them, including some of those old Disney animated features. Death, monsters/beasts, peril and all sorts of similar material populated them, and yet kids not only weren't permanently scared (although some nightmares were probably the result) but many enjoyed such material and begged to hear the stories again.

Thus, one shouldn't knock "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" for being set during The Great Depression and taking most of its story cues and themes from that era of financial hardship. That's particularly true considering that many kids are currently getting a firsthand taste of the history repeats phenomenon, what with the current recession, related home foreclosures and overall belt tightening and penny pinching.

If anything, the film and its plucky titular protagonist should serve as a positive message and role model combo for young girls (and boys) in this solidly constructed, fairly engaging and mostly entertaining offering. Of course, that shouldn't come as a surprise considering it's based on the immensely popular American Girl product line of dolls, books and such that have been marketed to the tween set over the past two decades.

Introduced in the mid 1980s, the product featured pre-teen girl characters situated in various periods of American history. Kit Kittredge arrived in 2000 in a follow-up wave to the initial characters, but is the first to be awarded a film to be released in theaters (the predecessors aired on TV). Considering it's likely to be anything from a moderate to big hit among its target audience, I can only imagine others will follow her onto the silver screen.

If so, one can only hope they'll get the same loving treatment that director Patricia Rozema and writer Ann Peacock have obviously bestowed on this effort. While adults won't likely be surprised by anything that transpires (most everything is presented in a way that younger viewers will easily be able to follow), the tale of this Depression era Nancy Drew type character goes down quite easily for viewers of all ages.

What really sells it, however, is Abigail Breslin in the lead role. Donning blonde locks and just the right touch of pluck, perseverance and kid angst, Breslin effortlessly makes the part hers. While some might understandably see the role and/or performance as too manufactured to one degree or another, I found that it worked quite well on all counts.

Supporting performances from both the veteran cast (Julia Ormond, Chris O'Donnell, Joan Cusack, Stanley Tucci, Wallace Shawn, etc.) and those lesser known (Max Thieriot, Madison Davenport, Zach Mills and Will Smith's daughter, Willow) are solid across the board. My only real complaint is the overuse of the score to drive home the emotion of any given moment (to help kid viewers in case they're not keeping up with and/or fully understanding what's occurring), but that's not enough to undermine the rest of the offering.

Playing young but possessing deeper themes that unexpectedly resonate in today's world of financial woe, the film is a solidly told and professionally crafted bit of old-fashioned family entertainment that's also a welcome respite from much of what Hollywood typically offers with live-action films aimed at kids. "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" rates as a 6.5 out of 10.




Reviewed June 11, 2008 / Posted July 2, 2008


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