Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (D: Patricia Rozema, 101 min) Opens Friday (July 4). Rating: NN
Kit Kittredge is occasionally funny, a tad sappy, predictable, a good moral lesson and a classic case of the tail wagging the dog. The last two come thanks to American Girl, the series of dolls and books on which the film is based. Kit (Abigail Breslin) is a Depression-era would-be reporter, who solves the case of a crime spree blamed unfairly on “hobos.” Breslin, formerly so natural onscreen, gets caught “acting” at every turn perhaps she knows she’s just a cog in a machine. It’s hard to fault a film preaching generosity and self-reliance and God knows all kids’ films want to sell you stuff. But when the character begins life as a doll… I guess we can just be thankful it’s American Girl and not Bratz.
