“I hate words … ‘cos you believe them … even when they’re not true.”

I’m a minor fan of what I’d call the “original trilogy” of American Girl movies (this one being a much larger affair than those TV movies), watching them just about every Christmas since I first saw them, so I was kinda interested in what this one would bring, especially having finally been won over by Abigail Breslin in Nim’s Island earlier this year.

The production design is a little artificial, but I kind of like this: it makes the movie fit stylistically alongside the previous adaptations a lot more than I expected – even the opening titles have a slightly cheap TV feel to them. Everything else here, however, is leagues above anything to be found in the TV movies.

I think time has yet to tell how important the message of this movie could be for some kids … but even if the current world problems don’t get this bad, there are still always hard times and movies like this are a much-needed blueprint for how to get through them. It’s good to know that even the giants like Disney (with The Little Mermaid 3) and AG are sort of pre-empting the worst-case scenario. The movie in the end is about stretching hope to its absolute limit; an early metaphor about Kit’s father giving up on a motor that went to run for another 5 years; a boy faking a letter to his mom from his father he’s certain will never return, just to raise her spirits one more time; there simply isn’t a more worthwhile message to have in a kids’ movie.

The comedy gets a little grating towards the end (there’s only so many pratfalls I can take), like past the hour mark the film makers are worried they might be losing younger viewers – Joan Cusack’s performance in particular (which is kinda kooky for the duration but in that way that only she can pull off) flag’s appallingly in the last 30 minutes. When you have her and Stanley Tucci being outacted by two 12-year-old girls and Colin Mochrie you’ve kinda gotta think somethin’s wrong, lol. Still, despite the usual Xmas scene being replaced here by Thanksgiving (it was released in June, what are you gonna do?), I’m sure this will become as much a part of the annual viewing as the other AG movies.

Tags: American Girl, cuties, Depression

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008 at 3:31 pm and is filed under 4 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.