Kit Kittredge: Squeaky Clean and Satisfying

It's a safe bet that most parents -- or moms, at least -- are aware of the American Girl juggernaut, which has rumbled its way into movie theaters with "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl."

The movie brings good news for parents.

First, the movie ticket is a relative bargain ... about the same as an American Girl hairbrush, and definitely the cheapest way to experience the pluck and sass of an American Girl heroine as she saves the day.

Second, the movie is not a commercial for the dolls. If you didn't know they exist (and how is it, living under a rock?), you can watch this whole story without feeling a sudden urge to spend $24 on a historically appropriate doll swimsuit.

Third, it's a decent movie. The script is well written, the acting talent first-rate and the story reasonably constructed.

The movie's main flaw -- and virtue -- is that it is narrowly targeted. This is a story meant for kids around the ages of 8-10 -- and most of the fans will be girls, who deserve more good movies than they get. While it's probably not going to delight the whole family, it is certainly diverting during its run time.

"Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" follows 10-year-old Cincinnati girl Margaret Mildred Kittredge (Abigail Breslin). Kit dreams of being a reporter even though it's 1934, during the Depression, and the world around her is falling apart. People are losing their jobs and homes, and Kit's family finds itself in dire straits after her father's car dealership is repossessed by the bank.

He leaves town to find work and her mother takes in boarders to make ends meet. Kit finds ways to turn her hardships into stories, and, what's more, finds herself facing a mystery that meshes nicely with her journalistic ambitions.

What's in It for Kids

Kids who already love American Girl will be ecstatic about this movie, even if it makes her classmate Stirling (Zach Mills) seem a whole lot cooler than he does in the half-dozen Kit Kittredge books. Mills is a charmer who will be familiar to anyone who saw "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium." (Don't blame Mills for that -- he was fine.)

Kit's tale was a smart one to pick first for a big-screen adaptation. Though Kit lives in a sanitized Depression-era Cincinnati, home foreclosure is a sadly fresh topic. Though kids perhaps won't have first-hand knowledge of it, the movie makes it pretty clear what it means. It's a grown-up problem that will resonate with young viewers, especially today.

Kit herself is a charming character. Played by the delightfully talented Breslin, Kit demonstrates courage and smarts. She isn't afraid to visit a hobo camp. She isn't afraid to stand up to a comically mean newspaper editor (Wallace Shawn, bringing back some of the same facial expressions he used to brilliant effect in "The Princess Bride").

By design, she's a safe, appropriate role model for kids, and she can be talked about as an example of a person who works really hard to make her dream come true.

Her work ethic is particularly trenchant in an age where kids often expect parties and presents for merely doing their work.

As Shawn's Mr. Gibson snaps, "Not bad's good, but it's not good enough." It's been awhile since Mr. Incredible made a similar call for excellence, and it's something more kids need to hear.

There is some violence in the movie. A bad guy gets bonked in the head with a shovel, and there is one tense scene where two kids hide from searching villains. Sensitive kids will quail, even if all ends well. The entire movie stays well in the confines of a G rating.

Oh, and one more thing kids will dig: The movie has a funny monkey. Is there a child alive who does not love a funny monkey in diapers?

What's in It for Parents

In some parts of the country, the superexpensive American Girl dolls, excuse me, "characters," are all the rage. Woe is the girl who doesn't have one. And woe is any budget-minded parent if she does.

A doll and accompanying paperback book cost about $100. The toy hairbrush alone costs $7. Or, if you live in the right town, you can have the doll's hair styled at one of the American Girl stores for a mere $10-$20, a bizarre thing if you stop and think about the most fun part of owning any doll: doing her hair yourself, especially if scissors are involved.

So it's a huge relief that this movie, though firmly branded in its title, isn't an aggressive pitch for doll-purchasing.

I took my own two girls to watch it, and, though both are in the American Girl demographic, it occurred to neither to ask for her own Kit. This is a good thing. When their grandmother bought them an American Girl doll a few years ago, the first thing they did was strip her naked and tattoo her with marking pens. This would probably be considered un-American.

Moreover, there are some really good performances in this movie. Chris O'Donnell is wonderful as Kit's dad. Julia Ormond as Kit's mother mesmerizes as she slides between misery and joy. Joan Cusack makes for a hilarious mobile librarian. She's so funny to watch; is her face really made of rubber, or does it just look like it?

Jane Krakowski as a dance teacher brings the same showy neediness she has honed to perfection on "Ally McBeal" and "30 Rock." But Stanley Tucci steals the show. He plays a mustachioed magician who gets the best lines in the script, including the one from the preview. "Have I ever levitated a dance instructor? Yes, but that's a long story."

There's already plenty of buzz that this is just the first of the American Girl stories to become a movie. As long as any future ones are as well cast, that ought to be a pleasure for young girls far and wide.

Martha Brockenbrough is MSN's Cinemama, for the Parents' Movie Guide. She is also the author of "It Could Happen to You: Diary of a Pregnancy and Beyond." She's also founder of SPOGG, the Society for the Promotion of Good Grammar. She writes a fun-with-kids column for Cranium.com, as well as an educational humor column for Encarta. Check out her Web site.

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