Movie and Television Reviews

Tasked with taking my nine-year-old daughter to Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, I felt fortunate to have the perspective of the targeted demographic to assist my review. Not that my instincts would have been wrong: Both Samantha and I think KKAG a beautifully done movie, and a rare quality, non-special effects-based drama for children and tweens.

For those of you unhip to the American Girl phenomenon, American Girl is a series of fiction books that focus on girls in particular American historical settings, one girl and setting per book. The books begot dolls which begot doll paraphernalia like dresses, glasses, and beds. Pretty soon, girls wanted movies, and, of course, AG creators needed to build stores for girls to purchase American Girl stuff. The stores are impressive places where girls can have tea, "style" their dolls' hair, and other poofy activities- more of a theme park experience than a store visit, really.

My own daughter’s "American Girl" is the very sweet, same-named Samantha, a turn of the century wealthy orphan.

Kit Kittredge is a spunky nine-year-old Roosevelt and Amelia Earhart admirer who wants to be a reporter- she storms into the local Cincinnati newspaper with her perspective of the depression, the setting of the smovie.

The depression creeps up on Kittredge’s neighborhood house-by-house until it finally reaches Kit's. Kit’s father, (Chris O’Donnell) leaves for Chicago looking for work, and her mother (Julia Ormond) takes in borders in response to their financial plight. The family also helps out two “hobo” boys named Will Shepherd (Max Thieriot) and and Countee (Willow Smith).

Police suspect Will in a series of muggings, and the rest of the story focuses on Kit's Nancy Drew-type sleuthing in search of the truth.

The movie is about as good as one can make a childhood drama for actual children (as opposed to a movie about a child, but made for adults like Pan’s Labyrinth).

The longish first act introduces the characters and places the depression setting. It does this very well. The characters aren’t just a cross section of depression-era demographics; they’re real, affecting, and elicit a legitimately emotional response from the audience. The dancer border, Miss Dooley (Jane Krakowski) and several others are interesting and flavorful. KKAG teaches "hobo culture," including a system of symbols hobos used to tip off other hobos to work or charity opportunities.

KKAG's America is a nation in transition: There's tension between the old manner of thinking of the poor- as people responsible for their plight through low moral habits- and the newer that sees the poor as victims of systemic circumstance. The tension is dramatized in one scene in which Kit retaliates against a classmate who mocks the poor and the fact that some students resort to selling eggs.

As well-done as this part of the KKAG is, the crime plot's appearance is welcome. KKAG then moves briskly and ends on a powerfully emotional note.

Message/Politics:

Dealing as it does with the seminal liberal/conservative American moment, the Depression, one that still causes controversy, KKAG can't avoid traipsing over some strongly-nurtured political gardens.

KKAG buys into the accepted wisdom that Hoover did nothing to alleviate the suffering, and then FDR came along and ended the depression with programs like the CCC which KKAG mentions by name. I won't discuss it now, but notice the unemployment chart showing unemployment still high throughout the thirties and even experiencing bumps in the "second depression" of 1938 and read the book, Forgotten Man (both below). Thomas Sowell has another conservative view.

The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes

Similar to the excellent Cinderella Man, KKAG depends on the perception of the the poor as noble victims for its dramatic punch. To that end, despite the mention of the CCC, the poor in KKAG depend upon themselves and their neighbors, not the government, to survive; I've already described how the characters take on borders, sell their houses, and sell eggs, the ultimate humiliation during the depression. Families stay together despite the pressure, avoiding the modern poor's practice of family separation or never uniting in the first place (The primary cause of modern American "poverty.").
The characters' conservative actions counteract the liberal message, then.

Cinderella Man (Widescreen Edition)

Nobody relies on "community organizers."

One woman avoids the effects of the depression by following that time-tested strategy available to a certain percentage of the female populace, marrying well. KKAG doesn't condemn this approach.

Tags: american girl movies, best movie for girls, great depression myths, review kitt kittredge