Nancy Drew (2007)

Overall rating from 1 to 100: 52

O Masterpiece (95-100)
O Excellent (75-94)
O Good video rental (60-74)
X Merely OK (50-59)
O Pure mediocrity (30-49)
O Medusa: don't watch (1-29)

Review by Jason Pyles / June 23, 2007

As we left the theater after watching “Nancy Drew,” my cute wife enthusiastically declared, “That was entertaining!” ‘Yes,’ I thought, ‘but only for nine-year-old girls and the truly pure in heart.’ Indeed, my wife is pure in heart.

I suspected that “Nancy Drew” would target the younger, teenage audience. I was right. This little movie will work best for young people from nine to 14 years old.

In many ways, this is like a live-action Scooby-Doo cartoon but without Scooby. For example, tense moments are provided by shining a flashlight in an old, grumpy man’s face in a dark tunnel. So parents, this movie isn’t too scary. There are some scenes of mild violence and one “h – e – double hockey sticks,” that I recall, but this movie is appropriately rated PG.

The opening scenes aren’t promising: A young-looking Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts), I’d say about 13 or 14, uses her sleuthing skills to apprehend two criminals. The biggest mystery of this first scene is why the director allowed this dopey acting and groaner dialogue in the final cut. But the movie improves a little after that.

Nancy’s father has some business to conduct in California. So, he and Nancy leave their quaint town of River Heights and journey to the Hollywood area. Nancy’s dad has concerns that her obsession with sleuthing is preventing her from being “a normal teenager.” (What’s that?) So she agrees to suppress her urges for detective work and just be normal.

But the house they move into contains a mystery: A famous movie star, Dehlia Draycott, once lived there. After vanishing for five months, the actress came back to the house and ended up dead in her own swimming pool. This “fantastically famous” unsolved mystery is enough to tempt Nancy to take the case.

(Dehlia Draycott, by the way, is fictitious, despite an onscreen appearance of the typically trusty Internet Movie Database, which brings me to my next point: “Nancy Drew” is modernized, providing opportunities for product placement for its young audiences to notice.)

I predict that Emma Roberts will be the new Emma Watson (Hermione from the “Harry Potter” movies). Yes, she’s cute as a button and is sure to be the new middle school heartthrob.

Overall, “Nancy Drew” is just OK. At least it’s clean and free from and undercurrent of innuendo. If you’re not taking kids and you’re planning to see this movie solely because you’re a fan of the books, then you’ll probably be disappointed ... unless, of course, you’re truly pure in heart, like Natalie Pyles.

Directed by Andrew Fleming
Emma Roberts / Josh Flitter / Max Thieriot
99 min. Mystery
MPAA: PG (for mild violence, thematic elements and brief language)

Copyright 2007.
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