Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
Kit Kittredge: An American Girl stars Little Miss Sunshine Abigail Breslin as a precocious 1930’s preteen wannabe journalist. With Toronto standing in for Cincinnati we see Kit’s middle class utopia shattered by the realities of the depression when her father’s car lot goes under and dad (Chris O'Donnell) is forced to seek work in Chicago. Kit and her golden hearted mother (Julia Ormond) are left to fend for themselves by taking in borders who start with neighbours also fallen on hard times and quickly expand to include a libidinous flapper (30 Rock’s Jane Krakowski) a mobile librarian with limited driving skills (Joan Cusack) and Stanley Tucci as a migrant magician. Mom also takes in a couple of hobos who work for food and teach Kit and the rest of the new Kittredge residents about life on the road. Their demeanour all but dismisses the prevailing hobo distrust until someone makes off with the mortgage money and all the guilty evidence point to them. As if The Little Rascals and Nancy Drew had joined forces, Kit puts her natural reporting abilities to work along with her ragamuffin crew to not only exonerate her down and out friends but also save the family home. The blonde bobbed Breslin continues to astonish with her capacity to carry a film at such a young age as she brings the character to life with such mature subtlety.