In a time when class prejudice still rumbles through our society, any film directed at children that emphasizes tolerance is welcome. This one is set during the Depression in Cincinnati, Ohio. Nine-year-old Kit (Abigail Breslin) has ambitions of being a newspaper reporter and has no hesitation submitting articles for publication to the curmudgeonly editor (Wallace Shawn) of the Cincinnati Register. She and her girlfriends hold regular meetings of their club in her treehouse. But some of the air leaks out of her dreams when her father (Chris O'Donnell) loses his car dealership to the bank and has no other choice than to go to Chicago to look for work. Her mother (Julia Ormond) decides to open their house to some boarders to get the money for their mortgage. One is a magician (Stanley Tucci), another a mobile librarian (Joan Cusack), a third a dance teacher (Jane Krakowski), and the fourth and fifth, a persnickety mother (Glenne Headly) and her son (Zach Mills). Kit's mother also agrees to a "trade" with two young hoboes (Max Thieriot and Willow Smith), who work around the house and garden in exchange for food.

Kit is very upset when one of her friends leaves town after the bank forecloses on their home. This girl had been ridiculed at school by some bigoted boys because she wore dresses made out of feed bags and her family had raised chickens and sold eggs. But soon Kit is doing the same things to help her mother make ends meet. She develops a lot of empathy for the hoboes, rejecting the view that they are irresponsible people who are afraid of work. She decides to do an article for the newspaper on their lives and community. She learns about special hobo signs and the challenges of living day-by-day without work or food. But Kit's investigations take another turn when on of her hobo friends is accused of a string of thefts in the area, including taking the lock box from their house where her mother has stored all their money and valuables.

Patricia Rozema, who was at the helm of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, does a fine job directing this drama filled with quirky and interesting characters. It was written by Ann Peacock and based on Valerie Tripp's stories in the American Girl series. Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) impresses again with the range of her emotions and her considerable spunk.

The spiritual undertow of the story couldn't be more relevant as more and more Americans are out of work, losing their homes to foreclosure, and sinking into poverty and sadness. Kit Kittredge desperately misses her father but she never abandons hope that they will survive. She realizes fairly quickly that many people are just one step away from disaster. That is why solidarity between the haves and the have-nots is more important than ever. The Thanksgiving dinner at the end of the movie is a symbol of the openness and hospitality that is at the heart of the American dream. Kit Kittredge: An American Girl is a superb family film!


Special DVD features include an American Girl movie trailer gallery.