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Once upon a time, I looked forward to seeing Abigail Breslin movies. She was adorable in Little Miss Sunshine. I liked No Reservations and Definitely, Maybe, too. But now, after Nim’s Island and Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, I’m starting to lose faith in Little Miss Breslin—or at least in her agent.
Inspired by the American Girl dolls—and the stories by Valerie Tripp—Kit Kittredge is the story of precocious 10-year-old Kit (Breslin), whose carefree life in 1930s Cincinnati is hit by the Great Depression. As times get tougher, Kit’s friends’ families face unemployment and foreclosure. Eventually, it hits Kit’s family, too—and her father (Chris O’Donnell) heads to Chicago to look for a job.
Left behind in Cincinnati, Kit and her mother (Julia Ormond) take in borders to help pay the mortgage. But while they’re struggling to make ends meet, the Kittredges and their borders have even more to worry about—because someone has been picking pockets and breaking into homes nearby. Everyone’s quick to blame the hobos who live in a camp nearby—but aspiring journalist Kit is determined to find the real thief.
Now, let me just start by acknowledging that I’m not Kit Kittredge’s target audience. The target audience is made up of little girls who take their American Girl dolls with them wherever they go. For those little girls, Kit is a cute and simple G-rated story. Think of it as a Lifetime movie for the younger generation—or this summer’s movie for the Nancy Drew crowd. It’s a move that I wouldn’t hesitate to let my six-year-old niece see—if she actually wanted to see it. Of course, I doubt that she would—because she (like her auntie before her) is a tomboy. And Kit Kittredge would probably bore her to tears (or, more likely, violence).
For the non-American-Girl crowd, Kit starts off as a harmless kids’ movie. The story is cute enough, with a folksy, old-fashioned feel. The situation is rather grim, and it’s slightly melodramatic at times, but it’s not all that bad. The longer it continues, though, the harder it is to handle—mostly because it’s just too silly. The characters have a strange obsession with hobos in general—and with a certain “limping hobo” in particular. Then, out of the blue, a monkey shows up (wearing pants). And Joan Cusack goes so over-the-top in her performance as the batty mobile librarian who lives with the Kittredges that one might wonder if her “mobile library” is really a front for a “mobile speakeasy.”
But even the goofiness can’t make Kit Kittredge entertaining. Despite downing several cups of coffee before the screening, I still struggled to maintain consciousness as the sappy story continued to drag on. One of my colleagues wasn’t as successful as I was—and his snores echoed through the theater.
So if you’ve got a daughter (or niece) who loves the American Girl dolls, she’ll probably enjoy this saccharine-sweet and sometimes-silly story. You, on the other hand, can just think of it as an opportunity to get caught up on some much-needed sleep.
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