Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
***
Stars: Abigail Breslin, Julia Ormond, Stanley Tucci
Rated: G
How long: 1:41
Where: Point, Eastgate, Star Cinema


In a time when it's commonplace for 9-year-old girls to get their nails done and wear thong underwear, it's easy for adults to shake their heads and say, "It wasn't like that when I was their age."

Of course, being 9 hasn't really changed, but it's hard to see that through the sexualized, materialistic story told by Bratz and Barbies.

"Kit Kittredge: An American Girl" captures what it's like to be a real 9-year-old girl in a way that will take adults back and kindle kids' imaginations.

Since its inception in 1986, the American Girl company (founded by Madison's own Pleasant Rowland) has made a niche for itself selling dolls with accompanying books that tell each doll's story. Spunky 9-year-old American Girls like Molly, Samantha and Felicity go on adventures that teach history and morality (the kind of morality that everyone can agree on, like perseverance, honesty and helping others).

Still, American Girl isn't really non-materialistic; the company achieved wild popularity with its brand of books, dolls and a plethora of other merchandise.

"Kit Kittredge" walks that line between glossy materialism and reality, and usually succeeds in keeping things real.

Kit (Abigail Breslin) is a plucky aspiring newspaper reporter living in Cincinnati during the Great Depression. When her father (Chris O'Donnell) loses his job and her mother (Julia Ormond) has to take in boarders to make ends meet, Kit struggles to make sense of things.

Being 9 is an age on the brink, a time when play becomes serious and fantasy turns to concrete plans, no matter how outlandish. Everything Kit does in the movie rings true, from her attempts to get printed in the Cincinnati daily newspaper to the secret codes she and her friends swear to each other in their tree house.

At times, the film slips into sun-kissed schmaltz. A few wince-inducing scenes toward the beginning break the film's general allegiance to hokey-free dialogue. Another misstep is Abigail Breslin's obviously bottle-dyed bob. Part of her appeal in her breakthrough film "Little Miss Sunshine" was that she looked like a grubby non-Hollywood kid. Here, her dyed hair and perfect little outfits sadly make her a movie girl, not a real girl.

But, let's face it, all dolls are based on image, even American Girl dolls, and it should come as no surprise that Breslin's been fit into that mold. As an actress, she's great. She has a rare ability to be cute without any pretense or self-conscious pandering.

The real treat in the movie is the cast of characters that Kit's mom brings into the house as boarders. Just when you think the movie might fall into pit of syrupy idealism, in saunters Stanley Tucci as the traveling magician and Joan Cusack as the oddball librarian with a truck full of books.

"Kit Kittredge" takes up some surprisingly thorny moral dilemmas, maybe ones to discuss as a family after the movie. For instance, when Kit's teenage hobo friend reads "Robin Hood," he wonders if it's okay to steal from the rich and give it to the poor. What if you're a poor hobo and you steal from the rich and keep it for yourself? What does it mean to be "rich" or "poor"?

The movie presents the Great Depression in a way that's both suitable and educational for younger audiences, but disturbingly close to today's reality. When Kit's mother explains what a mortgage is and why their neighbors are losing their homes, I thought of a mother today explaining sub-prime loans and foreclosures to her daughter.