Written by Vickie
October 21, 2010
I have always been kind of weirded out by the American Girl® empire – creepy dolls that cost almost $100 apiece, and an army of fervent preteen fans desperate to consume whatever the company rolls out.
So, it was with some degree of prejudice that I sat down to watch a feature-length film about one such doll: spunky, would-be reporter Kit Kittredge and her Depression-era misadventures.
Abigail Breslin, made up to look almost exactly like AnnaSophia Robb, stars as the sleuthy titular spitfire, who lives with her positively saintly parents (Julia Ormond and Chris O’Donnell) in 1930s Cincinnati. The Depression has hit, and family after family is being “sent to the poorhouse.” Money is tighter than tight and, when Mr. Kittredge loses his job, the family is divided out of necessity: Mr. Kittredge moves to Chicago to look for work and Mrs. Kittredge turns her gigantic home into a boarding house. Enter all manner of colorful characters, including dance teacher Miss Dooley (Jane Krakowski), goofy librarian Miss Bond (Joan Cusack), magician Jefferson Berk (Stanley Tucci), his bumbling cousin Freidreich (Dylan Smith), forlorn Mrs. Howard (Glenne Headly) and her son, Kit’s classmate, Stirling (Zach Mills).
The scourge of the Earth, based upon public opinion, are “hobos.” I lost count of how often the word “hobo” is uttered (with or without disdain) in the film, but I’m fairly certain it appears at least once in every single scene. Hobos – or, essentially, people who have lost all their worldly goods due to financial ruin – are cast out from the very society of which they were very recently a part, and a rash of “hobo crimes” have been plaguing the state of Ohio and parts of Ontario, Canada. But among this sub-society of the homeless are angelic Will (Max Thieriot) and his pint-sized companion, Countee (Willow Smith) – two good kids searching for food, who are befriended by Kit and her pals Stirling and Ruthie (Madison Davenport).
Once the masssssive set of characters – which could very easily have been trimmed by a few (Krakowski’s pointless Miss Dooley and Kenneth Welsh’s equally inconsequential snotty uncle, for starters) – is ironed out, the main plot of the film unfolds: who’s committing these “hobo crimes”? And how can Kit get to the bottom of the story? Unfortunately, by now, the movie is more than half over.
Directed by Patricia Rozema (When Night is Falling), the film seems to be geared towards kids under ten...maybe under eight. Its storytelling is simple and basic, and its characters are drawn with the broadest strokes possible so that even the smallest child will be able to follow the straightforward plot. It does take a very long while to get to the main thrust of the story, though, which leaves the door open for a bored audience in the interim. The film is also saddled with more saints than imaginable – almost everyone onscreen is portrayed with such earnest goodness that I kept waiting for them all to sprout halos. The Kittredges are positively dreamy in their virtuousness, every last hobo is presented as an endearing martyr and even the “villains,” once revealed, are kind of charming.
At the same time, I will admit that all the sweetness and light was a bit of a refreshing change, given the tendency of films for the kid set to be “edgy” somehow: laced with sarcasm, overly obnoxious kids and off-putting pop-culture references. Kit... has none of that. Even though this isn’t a Disney production, its sensibility is firmly rooted in the live-action Disney films of old, and the action has almost a 1950s vibe to it. Yeah, everybody’s good and no one’s really “evil” and the whole thing’s almost unbearably cutesy, but that was okay with me in the end. (Believe me, no one is more shocked than I am that I not only enjoyed Kit Kittredge..., but that its borderline-schmaltzy conclusion actually put a lump in my throat. Who knew?)
Ultimately, it’s probably about 15 minutes too long and could have done with some editing to trim its cast and superfluous plot points, but it’s certainly good, clean fun and a film that will appeal hugely to young girls...a demographic often ignored by Hollywood.
