‘F.D.R. has polio? What a scoop!’ — aspiring journalist Kit Kittredge (Little Miss Sunshine’s Abigail Breslin) is a charmer
With the ever-growing push to teach children about social issues, a young girl’s toy doll isn’t just for dressing up or having tea with anymore. For progressive parents, gone are the unrealistically proportioned Barbies of old to make way for dolls with bright and liberated personas who deal with real-life problems. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, a spinoff from the popular history-based American Girl doll, book, TV, clothing and accessories series, is another step in this direction. While the inspiration is based in toy marketing, the movie acts competently as a stand-alone project surprisingly free of corporate branding.
Kittredge (Abigail Breslin) is a precocious girl living in an increasingly unwelcoming world. Set in 1934, at the peak of the Great Depression, the 10-year-old protagonist follows her dreams to become a successful journalist, while standing up for her moral beliefs, which are deep-set for someone so young.
The film makes it no secret that Kittredge and her fellow American Girl characters are deeply rooted in socially conscious rhetoric, but Ann Peacock’s script avoids preaching. Instead, Kittredge and her friends show considerable courage in the face of problems that their parents can’t shield them from. It sets the stage for young heroes and heroines that every prepubescent audience member will undoubtedly aspire to emulate.
Director Patricia Rozema effectively portrays the overwhelming sense of desperation of the time period. The film manages to leave the audience with a true sense of the characters’ plight while avoiding the kind of heaviness that would grate on the seven-to-12-year-old demographic.
The adult cast members’ performances aid this equilibrium — with the exception of Joan Cusack’s completely overwrought and overdone turn as Miss Bond — and Breslin proves quite capable as Kittredge, equally comfortable putting forth a cute facade and selling the film’s more heart-wrenching moments. However, Zach Mills is the most moving of all the performers with his portrayal of Kittredge’s pal, Sterling Howard. Mills plays Howard with a refreshingly natural ease and maturity beyond his years, adding a completely endearing quirk to a supporting character that could have just faded into the background.
Though slightly overblown, Kit Kittredge makes for a well-spent cinematic outing for children and their parents, while also teaching them about the trials and tribulations of the children who came before them. Not bad for a movie based on a doll.
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