Nancy Drew

By Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, Zap2It.com | June 15, 2007

Tate Donovan and Emma Roberts in 'Nancy Drew'

Down to Her Roadster, 'Nancy Drew' Retro Fits

Published in 1930, the first of the 56 original Nancy Drew stories, ghost-written by Iowa's own Mildred Wirt Benson, concerned a missing will. In a spirit of playful fidelity to the Drew of old, the latest screen incarnation of the Type-A wonder-sleuth sends Ms. Drew in search of a will of her own. It's tucked away in a Chinese box, and it holds the key to the unsolved murder of a film star, whose allegedly haunted L.A. mansion is now inhabited by Nancy and her attorney father, recently relocated from the Midwest burg of River Heights. Back home no one laughed at Nancy's penny loafers or "Chapman Report"-era hairdo or sense of manners, and kindness. "Is there a law against common courtesy in Los Angeles?" she asks at one point.

"Nancy Drew" lacks a will of another sort. The heroine and the material haven't been rethought sufficiently for the modern-day setting chosen by writer-director Andrew Fleming ("Dick," the "In-Laws" remake). The premise is that Nancy is a misunderstood teen out of time, subject to various "Carrie"-level humiliations at the hands of her newfound Hollywood High adversaries who can't get over her niceness.

Fleming acquits himself well enough with the actors, but whenever Nancy has to jump on top of a garbage truck or bail out of a limo at reasonably high speed the action becomes nearly incoherent. Yet for all its limitations, I sort of liked the movie. Its clunkiness is oddly relaxing.

Much of this easygoing quality can be attributed to Emma Roberts. She was 15 when it was filmed, and her Nancy wears her super-smartness and slightly prissy moral righteousness lightly, without any of that horrible child-actor overzealousness. She's good in a way you tend not to associate with someone already starring in her own Nickelodeon series, "Unfabulous." ("Nancy Drew" plays like a Nickelodeon pilot.)

Tate Donovan plays Papa Drew, all workaholic excuses and amiable smiles. A mugging fiend named Josh Flitter is Corky, Nancy's 12-year-old pal, seemingly in training to become either a comedian or an agent. Max Thieriot keeps things nice and simple as Ned Nickerson, the protagonist's sort-of-boyfriend, who is nearly devoured whole by the menacing sunshine and fashionistas of modern day L.A., a world away from what young Corky refers to as "the flyover states."

For the record, the role of Nancy's beloved roadster is played by a Nash Metropolitan convertible. Nice. The film itself is more nice than good, but nice isn't the worst trait.

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