CinemaNow - Kit Kittredge: An American Girl

Parents will have plenty of choice when it comes to family films over the July 4th holiday. In addition to last weekend's hit WALL-E and the earlier release Kung Fu Panda, the Abigail Breslin starrer Kit Kittredge: An American Girl is opening wide today, after showing in a handful of theaters during the previous two weeks. The movie, aimed at girls who have latched on to the books, magazines, and dolls associated with the character, is not expected to become any sort of threat to the earlier releases, even though it's receiving some surprisingly strong reviews. Indeed, Roger Ebert concedes that since he was aware that the movie was based on the American Girl products, he had expected "some kind of banal product placement." What he got instead, he says is a "miracle" -- a movie that "has a great look, engaging performances, real substance and even a few whispers of political ideas, all surrounding the freshness and charm of Abigail Breslin, who was 11 when it was filmed." Several critics observe that parents are likely to enjoy the film as much as -- or even more than -- their kids. Rafer Guzmán in Newsday calls it "a kiddie film that's worth an adult ticket, too." Lou Lumenick in the New York Post even goes further, calling it "one of the 10 best American movies released so far this year." Not all critics are so pleasantly stricken. Carrie Rickey in the Philadelphia Inquirer says that the film is "admirable, always, pleasant in passages, but never fully engages ... episodic and pleasant instead of emotional and poignant."