Review of Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008) by Chads. — 03 Jul 2008

Ten years, give or take a few years, the typewriter as a prop, like the rotary phone and the contraption that plays the vinyl record, will cause a segment of the audience to ask their older chagrined companions, "What the heck is that?" Ten-year-old Kit Kittredge(Abigail Breslin) aspires to be a journalist, but that's because the computer hasn't been invented yet.

Her modern-day counterpart would start a blog. Concurrent to her ambitious goal of publishing an article about hobos in a Cincinnati newspaper, is the Great Depression, which might be bad for her family and neighbors, but a boon for her path course.

Since there's no such thing as search engines, Kit investigates soup kitchens and tent cities to meet the homeless. In the June/July issue of the Atlantic Monthly, Nicholas Carr asks, "Is Google Making Us Stupid?" The question is rhetorical.

Most ten-year-old children, not to mention, me, lack the attention span to write a newspaper-length article. The very sight of a pint-sized Lois Lane-wanna-be hunting and pecking at a Remington is nostalgia with a double-edge.

In twenty-five years, give or take a few years, the newspaper as a prop, like the typewriter, will indicate that the film you're watching is a period piece. During the course of "Kit Kittredge: An American Girl", the young writer evolves into an investigative reporter when she tries to exonerate the bums from a burglary rap by playing Nancy Drew.

No more puff pieces about the Chicago World's Fair for this little girl. Kit's plight to be taken seriously as a journalist is akin to every female who tried to crack the then-male dominated field.

Think of Jane Fonda's character in "The China Syndrome", who rises to the occasion during a live feed in the film's final scene, or more recently, the television journalist that Christina Applegate plays in "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy".

It's not just age that Kit is overcoming, it's gender, too.