“I disapprove of women in pantsuits. The world doesn’t need any more Hilary Clintons.”

Thus begins the story of a man who makes Swimming with Sharks’ Buddy Ackerman look like a pussycat, lol. I loved director Billy Ray’s Shattered Glass – in fact I’m annoyed that I haven’t seen it a second time in the past four years – and this is kind of a neat inversion of the story there, despite still being based of course on a true story. Ryan Phillippe sort of does the Hayden Christensen part, posing as a clerk for Robert Hanssen, played by Chris Cooper. It’s Hanssen, however, who turns out to be the deceptive one; but not before Phillippe has warmed to him in quite a deeply human way – and maybe we have too. Cooper is fantastic enough to make that seemingly impossible thing occur – I like the almost comic presentation of Hanssen at times, he almost reminds me of George C. Scott Sterling Hayden in Dr. Strangelove or something, like the thing about Catherine Zeta Jones and his paranoia. It’s good to see Laura Linney again, too.

This is fairly harmless kids stuff … so harmless in fact that there’s little else to say about it. Emma Roberts looks the part and hits the marks but there’s nothing much that’s memorable about her like there was, say, about Michelle Trachtenberg in the also much more visually interesting Harriet the Spy. There are a couple of cute cameos by Bruce Willis and Adam Goldberg, and Rachael Leigh Cook is always good as long as it’s not She’s All That. Visually it feels more like a Disney TV movie, though, and from Andrew Fleming that’s a damn shame – I think I’m reminded of Tower of Terror which had a similar kind of Old Hollywood mystery behind it if I remember correctly. It has enough cute moments to get by, though.

One of the best children’s movies ever, in fact, even if I allow 3 slots for the Spy Kids Trilogy, I think it still makes my top ten. It’s just great. Bronwyn Hughes is a really vibrant director – I’d love to make this a double bill some day with Forces of Nature. They’re both among my guilty pleasures. In this movie, there’s a great image when Golly (Rosie O’Donnell), Harriet’s baby-sitter of sorts, leaves Harriet (Michelle Trachtenberg). They both have umbrellas and as Golly’s taxi leaves, Harriet’s umbrella is left in the road. Another following scene makes good of Golly’s name – Harriet, feeling lonely as Golly was her own personal Jiminy Cricket, cries into a pillow, saying, “Oh Golly Oh Golly Oh Golly Oh Golly,” seriously cute stuff.

And Hughes gets the kid mentality. The way loyalties change and friendships die and rebirth in the school environment is pretty well presented. And the fun of being a child is never better than the scene in a mysterious woman’s backyard. As Golly says, “There are as many ways to live as there are people on the earth, and each one deserves a closer look.”

I hope to read the book on which the movie is based some day. ‘Cos this is a great little story. Sequel, now!