FLIPSIDE Online

'American Girl' goes from sweet tale to sour mystery

By Rick Bentley, McClatchy-Tribune News

Abigail Breslin stars in 'Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,' opening Friday. STUDIO

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl * ½ – Rated G; starring Abigail Breslin, Stanley Tucci, Julia Ormond, Joan Cusack, Glenne Headly; directed by Patricia Rozema; opening Friday at ShowPlace 8 in Carbondale.

Somewhere between the original idea and the final product, "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" lost its mystery.

The word "mystery" was dropped from the film's original title. The movie didn't lose the actual mystery Kit (Abigail Breslin) must solve. It is there in the second half of the new movie. There lies the problem.

The first half of Ann Peacock's adaptation of the Valerie Tripp book holds true to the American Girl theme. Kit lives in Cincinnati at the height of the Great Depression. She provides a spunky attitude in a world being devoured by poverty, crime and despair.

The young girl tries to deal with a world where her friends have to move away when their home is taken by the bank. It is a world where her father (Chris O'Donnell) leaves her life as he searches elsewhere for work.

Kit lives in a time when people have to band together to survive. That's a great theme for a family film. When "Kit Kittredge" stays focused on that element, it is a first-rate story.

That Kit has a passion, at 11, to be a newspaper reporter opens up the possibility that she will be the innocent eyes to interpret a complex world. The possibilities continue to grow as her mother (Julia Ormond) begins to rent rooms in their home. The house becomes an oddball mix of a sexually charged dance teacher (Jane Krakowski), an out-of-work magician (Stanley Tucci) and a mobile library driver (Joan Cusack).

There are even glimpses into the hobo (the Depression-era term for the homeless) world that could have developed into a host of different directions to take. Director Patricia Rozema stages the hobo village as if it were a Disneyland attraction. She's lucky this movie is aimed at a young audience that will be more forgiving for such a superficial depiction.

Breslin continues to be the most impressive force among young actors. (Actually, she's a better actress than 90 percent of acting adults.) Ormond gives the movie a warm center.

All that falls to the wayside as "Kit Kittredge" becomes a Nancy Drew mystery. Kit must solve a crime to save her home and a new friend. The change of direction kills so much potential. It doesn't help that Cusack suddenly starts playing the role as if she were an animated character.

And both O'Donnell and Tucci get either too little or too silly material. They are wasted.

What starts as a charming slice-of-life tale of the strength of the human spirit becomes a bad episode of the "Scooby-Doo Mysteries." Why it took that course is the real mystery.