Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

In the mid-1980s, when Elaine and I lived in Brookline, MA, we patronized a corner grocery whose owner once said to us (and I wish I could remember the context), "It's good to get away from reality once in a while."

That seems as good a reason as any to see Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (dir. Patricia Rozema), now in theaters. Kit (Abigail Breslin) is a ten-year-old aspiring reporter who cracks a multi-city crime spree in Depression-era Ohio. Yes, the Depression is on, but the movie presents a world in which individual acts of kindness render unnecessary any larger considerations of social justice. Be nice to that hobo! He will mark your gate with a kindly hobo sign and go back to the hobo jungle feeling better about himself (and you).

I saw this movie with Elaine and Rachel this afternoon, and for the first time in my life, I found myself the only man (and only male, for that matter) in a movie audience. And our party of three was the only group of moviegoers in which each member was over twenty-one (or over twelve, for that matter).

Unexpected pleasures: Wallace Shawn plays a cranky newspaper editor, and there's a tip of the hat (or cap) to Sullivan's Travels. Not bad for a kids' movie.

Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (Official site)