A young girl finds the Great Depression hits a little too close to home in the children’s period piece, KITT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL. Kitt Kittredge, played by LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE’s Abigail Breslin, is an aspiring journalist in the late 1920’s, even at the young age of ten. She attempts to latch on with the local paper, the Cincinnati Register, but to little avail. In the midst of her aspiring career as a journalist, Kit is also initiating new members into her secret club, fending off harassing schoolmates and most importantly, attempting to deal with the ill-effects of the Depression.
Just like its lead character, the aspirations of KITT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL are honorable, welcomed and often times far-reaching. There’s much to like about KITT KITTREDGE from Breslin’s starry-eyed performance to the well-intentioned script, but the mystery that encompasses the latter third of the film is an awkward and amateurish departure from the drama, tension and camaraderie that builds during the film’s first two acts. Kitt goes from budding reporter to private investigator, and the screenplay goes from tackling an important period in our country’s history and the individuals it affected to a clownish and tame mystery involving a robbery. The robbery is designed for two reasons: one, to entertain those children potentially put-off by the dramatic nature and tone of the film, and two, to further emphasize the film’s message of not judging others by their socio-economic lot in life. Breslin, and a talented supporting cast, nearly pull it off. Kitt is a cute, bright and understanding girl, and Breslin delivers a performance that is as confident as Olive was out-of-place in LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE. Stanley Tucci, Chris O’Donnell, Julia Ormond and Wallace Shawn all bring a sense of realism or originality to their roles. KITT KITTREDGE is an amiable attempt at reliving a harrowing time in our country’s history through the eyes of a child, but it ends up caving to a secondary story.
Grade: C+
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