Platicsco Good story, Not enough for a whole film

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

AnhartLinkin This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

SnoopyStyle It's the depth of the Great Depression in 1934 Cincinnati. Kit Kittredge (Abigail Breslin) wants to be a reporter for the Register and city editor Mr. Gibson (Wallace Shawn). Ruthie Smithens (Madison Davenport), Frances Stone, and Florence Stone are fellow members of the Treehouse Club. The Stones get foreclosed and the sisters have to move away. Ruthie's dad is the banker. Kit is donating to the soup kitchen when she sees her father Jack (Chris O'Donnell) as one of the unemployed. He has to go to Chicago to look for work while her mother Margaret (Julia Ormond) rents rooms in the house. The boarders include Mrs. Howard (Glenne Headly) and her son Stirling, dance instructor Miss Dooley (Jane Krakowski), mobile librarian Miss Bond (Joan Cusack), and magician Jefferson J. Berk (Stanley Tucci). Kit starts writing with the help of Ruthie, Stirling, and hobos Will Shepherd (Max Thieriot) and Countee (Willow Smith). When Ruthie's home gets robbed while her family is on vacation, Will becomes a prime suspect. Margaret's lockbox and all of the family's money gets stolen. Jefferson claims it to be Will.Abigail Breslin is great and her character is a real heroine. There are probably too many characters and too much story for a general kids movie. It's nevertheless a good old fashion coming-of-age adventure with some good messages for the little ones. It's one of the better family fare.

Turfseer Kit Kittredge is a 10 year old aspiring journalist who lives in an upper middle-class suburb of Cincinnati in 1934. Through a family connection, she boldly calls upon the publisher of a major Cincinnati newspaper and asks him to publish an article she's written. Somehow I was thinking that it might have been more interesting if the plot had gone in a different direction from the beginning. Instead of being turned down and not getting her article published until the movie is just about over (and that's the way the plot actually plays out), it might have been more interesting if somehow Kit enlists an adult to get herself published and then her articles become a sensation. Kit becomes a young "Cyrano" with her adult friend (perhaps the 19 year old gopher who Kit was put in contact with by her brother at the beginning of the film) attempts to keep the ruse going, with the publisher and the co-workers at the newspaper in the dark until the film's climax. In my 'alternative' scenario, Kit is found out at the end and 'exposed'; she falls from grace but is redeemed after her final article exposes a team of con men who have been preying upon the good members of the community.As it turns out, The Kittredge 'First Act' is replete with politically correct, anachronistic ideas. The 'hobos' are nothing more than a stand-in for today's immigrants while the kids whose families are lucky enough to escape the ravages of the Depression, mouth platitudes in school about the hobos not working and getting "government handouts". The rich kids are equated with the conservative, right-wing Republicans of today.The film's second act begins when Kit's father loses his car dealership (it's interesting that he was still able to have a thriving business as late as 1934!). The father decides to pack his bags and go to Chicago to find new employment. Kit's mother is forced to take in boarders much to Kit's chagrin. Here's where the film really starts dragging. Instead of introducing the antagonist, the plot focuses on introducing us to the collection of oddball characters who inhabit the boarding house. The machinations of these characters are supposed to be amusing but they are merely foolish (there are one too many scenes with Miss Bond, the mobile librarian, crashing her truck in the front yard along with the undeveloped character Miss Dooley who happens to be a dancer of sorts). Then there's Mr. Berk, played by Stanley Tucci, who wows the kids with his magic tricks (another scene that did not have to go on as long as it did).In addition to the boarders, Kit meets two Hobo children, Will and Countee and decides to investigate the Hobo 'way of life'. Implausibly, Kit's mother allows her to go to a hobo camp to do some 'research' for one of her articles, but wouldn't you know it the hobos are a bunch of wonderful people (despite police reports of many robberies committed by various members of their group). Much too late in the story, the Hobo children are accused of stealing all the boarders' valuables which Kit's mother had placed in what she believed to be a 'safe place'.By Act III, we've finally discovered that Mr. Berk, the magician, his associate and Miss Bond are a bunch of con artists who have been victimizing poor boarding house denizens all over the city. Since they are a bunch of clumsy fools (buffoons), Kit easily figures out (with the assistance of her young buddies) that they're the ones who framed poor Will; he's soon exonerated and the police now arrest the magician and his buddy after they are exposed by Kit and company.The denouement is unsatisfying as well. Kit's father returns from Chicago and inexplicably hasn't been able to find one job there. So he reassures Kit that he intends to remain in Cincinnati (despite the fact that there is still no work for him there). Finally, the newspaper publisher arrives and announces that he's published Kit's first article. Instead of becoming an exciting muckraker from the beginning, Kit's new found fame comes a little too late in the storyline.Unfortunately, little Abigail Breslin is once again used by adults for nefarious purposes. In the insufferable "Little Miss Sunshine", she ends up dancing in a sexually suggestive way at the end of the movie (it's supposed to be "cute" but in reality is a cynical attempt by the films' scenarists to promote an elitist agenda—modern day beatniks trumping beauty pageant snobs). Here little Abigail is also used to promote another modern-day form of elitism: the victims of today's economic woes get their shots in at today's fat cats (no doubt Corporate Executive types who get big bonuses). At least here the 'anything goes' philosophy of 'Little Miss Sunshine' is no longer operative but little Abigail once again comes off as overly pushy and aggressive(and certainly not 'cute').In the end, 'Kittredge' patronizes both adults and children alike. The film's scenarists were afraid to expose children to a dose of reality. The Depression here is reduced to a Hallmark Greeting Card with villains who are buffoons and heroes who can do no wrong. What it needed to be was another 'Wizard of Oz' with a wicked witch antagonist who is actually scary and evil and protagonists (such as Dorothy and her buddies) who have real-life, honest-to-goodness, human foibles.

TxMike Cincinnatti, Ohio, heartland of America, hit hard by the depression. All the small kids knew was that whenever your family resorted to selling eggs, you were about to lose your home.Cute 11 year old Abigail Breslin is Margaret Mildred Kittredge, 'Kit' for short. She is in an ideal family, until ... dad's business goes under and he has to go find work elsewhere. He goes to Chicago. In one scene after dad has been gone for a while Kit says, "If you are not working in Chicago, why can't you NOT work here?" Kit's mom is Julia Ormond as Margaret Kittredge, and her dad is Chris O'Donnell as Jack Kittredge. Kit's mom has to resort to taking in boarders to make ends meet and keep the house from foreclosure. It becomes quite a varied group, with a dancer, Jane Krakowski as Miss May Dooley. A mobile library driver, Joan Cusack as Miss Lucinda Bond. A woman, Glenne Headly as Louise Howard, plus her young son. And a magician, Stanley Tucci as Jefferson Jasper Berk. Meanwhile Kit is pursuing her ambition to write articles for the Cincinnatti newspaper, where the editor is Wallace Shawn as Mr. Gibson. At first they just laugh at her, who ever heard of a kid writing articles for the newspaper. But she keeps on trying. There are a couple of hobos, Max Thieriot as Will Shepherd and Willow Smith as Countee Garby. They end up doing odd jobs around the house and get food in return. Plus friendship from Kit and the other kids. A crisis arises when the lockbox in the Kittredge house turns up missing, and clues lead police to suspect it was a hobo, perhaps even Will. But Kit doesn't believe it and puts her investigative skills, a sort of Nancy Drew approach, to work helping solve the crime.Overall a good movie, entertaining with some good actors.SPOILERS: The crime was a product of the magician, his friend, and the mobile librarian. But Kit hides in the car when they go to dig up the buried treasure. In the process she clears the name of the hobos and the Kitredges keep their home. During Thanksgiving dinner dad shows up again.

cosimdm I took my grandchild to see this movie and was truly shocked. How could a movie this good come out of Hollywood? The characters were believable, the plot interesting, there were humans instead of androids in this movie, there was no sex, violence, or bad language in it, and this old lady LOVED it. So did my 7 year old grandchild. Why haven't they been making movies like this for years?Usually when I take a child to the movies, I am saddened by the experience. Where are all the wonderful, wholesome productions of yesteryear that entertained one and educated at the same time? This movie did both. My grandchild knew nothing about the Depression, so I explained the time in very simple terms. She seemed to get it, and loved the way the story had a good ending where the main character had a personal triumph and a family endured adversity.Take your kids to see this movie. You will be proud and not embarrassed.