Review: Kit Kittredge - An American Girl

Way back in the 70s the role model options for little girls like me who hated Barbie and played outside all day were quite limited. But I remember learning about the depression through the musical Annie. I remember Hooverville and the cheery optimism of Annie singing Tomorrow (which I belted out all day long.) Annie was our Kit Kittredge. Today, girls are inundated with many choices -- too many -- and I imagine that as a parent (which I'm not) it's probably a breath of fresh air to give your daughter (if have $100) an American Girl doll to play with rather than a Barbie (which coincidentally happens to be made by the same company -- Mattel.)

I saw Kit Kittredge at a screening where the girls in the audience were breathless with excitement. They were just too cute sitting down in the front row talking to the screen like they were seeing their friends, so cute that even the curmudgeon reviewers in the room cracked a smile. The film is adorable, really how can I have a problem where the opening montage includes photos of Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt who reside on the bulletin board in Kit's treehouse. What I loved about Kit is that she is the girl in charge. You hardly ever see girls so strong and confident. There is no doubt that she is the leader and her group of friends (boys and girls) looks to her for all decisions. While she's dealt some serious blows throughout the film -- her dad loses his business and is forced to leave town for a job, her family takes in boarders to help pay the rent -- she still soldiers on with her desire to be a reporter. I mean what 9-year-old knows what she wants to do and has enough moxie to show up at a major city newspaper and demand that the editor read her story. Her confidence in herself is infectious whether you are 9, 49, or 69.

A.O. Scott wrote in the NY Times this weekend about taking his daughter and her friends clutching their dolls to see the film. It seems that girls across the country are bringing their dolls with them. Cute. But let's put a little perspective on this. A month ago women were vilified as materialistic and stupid for wearing their Manolo Blanick's to see Sex and the City. One month later it adorable and empowering that girls are bringing their dolls with them to the movies. It just says to me that we love our girls like Kit to be strong, smart and bold (like Girls Inc. says) but not our women.

Kit Kittredge is a film that boys and girls should see and honestly, any parent who lets their son see something else because it's a "girls movie" is just plain wrong. Boys need to see girls in strong roles even more than girls do. I hope that we will see lots of dads and their daughters -- maybe it will spawn a take your daughter to a movie day.

This creative team on this film is infused with women power. Kudos to Patricia Rozema, the Canadian director who respected the kid actors and was also to get great performances from the adults who include Chris O'Donnell, Julia Ormand, Stanley Tucci, and the great comedian Joan Cusack. The film is produced by Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Lisa Gillan who runs Julia Roberts film company (Julia is an executive producer). It is written by Ann Peacock based from the stories by Valerie Tripp.

film opens across the country today on 1800. It will really need support to compete against Hancock and the other big summer films.
photo: Cylla von Tiedeman

The Producers of Kit Kittredge Talk About Making the Film

I always love to here from the creative film people about how they got a film made. Kit Kittredge is produced by all women and several of them including Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, Ellen Brothers (president of American Girl Doll) and Lisa Gillan attended a Q&A.

It was kind of strange to have a person who is a corporate brand leader talk about producing a movie but since everything is about marketing these days it was illuminating to see the impetus for taking the dolls to the screen.

I'm one of the people who really doesn't know much about the American Girl doll. For those others of you out there is the doll desert, here's what they are from the woman who runs the brand.

Ellen Brothers: American Girl is a 22 year old business all about celebrating girls. It's all about about developing products and experiences for girls that generations can share. If you go to one of our stores there are manners classes and cooking classes and muffins with mom and all sorts of things you can take with you. American Girl is about the emotional connection. Our audience is girls 3-12 and we have about 92% awareness of the brand and if you're not we have zero.

Manner classes? Cooking classes? I think that kind of regressive. How about climbing on the jungle gym classes?

Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas: I was aware of it because of my niece. I was always aware of the characters and knew they were more than a doll. American Girl, to me, was in a league of its own. There were toys and then there was American Girl, and the only reason I say that is that it's history come to life. What other product shows you history through the eyes of a nine year old? What was so impressive to me is that they vet everything. They have a whole department that historically looks at what life was like for a nine year old so you are looking at history through the eyes of a child, and sometimes you need to look back to see where you are going. Whether its Kit or Felicity when dealing with war, or Julie dealing with divorce -- each one of these girls is thinking how am I going to get through this.

How do you make sure that it is up to your standard?

EB: you control every single detail. We were very respectful of entertainment because in a girls eyes we have sold over 120 million books and these characters live in a girls imagination. We were very concerned that when we picked an actor to play the lead that forever more she would be that character so you have to make sure that you control all the details. I was so impressed when Elaine and her team came in to talk about this. She could have been interviewing for a job that's how well she knew the intellectual property and we always start with the story and then the doll. We start with the story first, the values we want to infuse, and then decide what the characters is going to look like and Elaine knew that to its core. We were pretty sure that we found the right partners and we made three TV movies in o4, 05, 06 and the logical extension of the success of those was to move to feature films.

EGT: We also knew that there was no family audience in TV. With very little media we sold 1 million units and what what that told us that while advertisers are not going to pay a lot to reach a family audience in TV, there is a family audience in features. And while others audiences are dwindling and coming and going what I kept on saying to anyone who would listen is this could be a movie because it's a family movie. I don't think its just for girls. I hope boys go and hope dads go. I know that our target is girls but I think its empowering for kids. It tells kids you can get through it. If a movie can entertain and educate a little bit, hallelujah.

We never say when it's a movie for boys or men that we need to get women and girls to attend, but when it's a movie for girls or women we say we need to get the male audience in. How can we overcome these stereotypes?

EGT: It's hard because this is American Girl. It bothers me to no end. I've given lots of interviews where I've said why does the success of Sex and the City limit or define an audience? The female audience has been there. For 15 years it was there with Julia (Roberts, an Executive Producers on this film) and everyone says oh it's just because it was Julia, then it was Sandra Bullock, then it was Reese Witherspoon, then it was The Devil Wears Prada and Chicago. We are always the exception why can't we just be the rule? I just don't understand it. Now they are saying that we are Sex and the City for little girls. No, we're a good movie. I don't like being the exception. I think the female audience has been there. I think that Julia Roberts did define it for our generation for 15 years, but before her there was Barbra Streisand there were always women there. It exists, it's healthy we have to feed it. And we have to stop treating every movie like its the definition or the end.

Why Kit's story?

Lisa Gillan: Kit is very popular and it's a time period that kids don't know very much about and are fascinated with. There is no technology and it opens up a world that their grandparents lived in and there are fascinated by little things that we at our age take for granted like typewriters. When Abigail first sat down at the typewriter she said: "where's the screen? and then how do I delete?" Kit's story was also expandable. We have a young boy who's a co-star. Valerie Tripp (the book writer) made these characters real. What we tried to do was dramatize it and honor her work as best as we could but expand it. It's hard because the 12 million girl fan will bust you.

EB: We love the way that the depression, 1934 Cincinnati, resonates with what we are going through today. It's about losing your home, relying on family and friends to get through, it's about loss, and we just thought that when we were putting this movie together a year ago we thought there were wonderful links that girls would understand. You can't ignore the relevance.

9 year old girls are strong and powerful and soon after that they lose a lot of that power. Why did American Girl pick 9 as the age of the dolls?

EB: I think that's one thing the founder of the brand Pleasant Rowling did. She didn't really understand what she was doing but took girls seriously. Now we look at the tween market which has 220 billion dollar in discretionary spending. No one was marketing to them 22 years ago when American Girl started. They decided not to pander to them. The books are written at a second grade reading level, and the whole premise is to compare and contrast points of American history that is taught in public schools. We've never done TV advertising. We market through catalogs and the catalogs are a real emotional hook because moms and girls keep them in their houses. There is an emotional connection.

A Conversation with Patricia Rozema, Director of Kit Kittredge

I attended the junket for Kit Kittredge recently. Here is some of the conversation director Patricia Rozema. (Not all the questions are from me- but thought you'd enjoy the answers)

How did you get involved with the film?

I was approached by Jill Goldstein at HBO Films. I had worked with her at Miramax. I spoke with Colin Callendar and Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and they gave me the script which already had Abigail Breslin attached. I was looking for a children's movie and then they mentioned the American Girl doll connection and I said no, I'm not doing a doll movie. But then I read the script and realized it's not a doll movie- it's about a kid in the depression. I realized that those dolls are embodiments of characters and it suddenly seemed really attractive to me to direct something about a family that could lose it all. It spoke to me as a parent. This idea that there is so much more to hang onto than physical wealth.

It's ok not to just provide happiness in film. Ithink that kids are underestimated in their capacity to feel in a lot of movies. They get a steady diet of fantasy or super strength super wealth or super popularity with the action movie or the princess movies. It seemed to be a good balancer to provide them with something that showed a little gravity and loss and that also values writing and journalism. I was a journalist for a while and I can't imagine giving my kids something better than the wish to write well.

What are your feelings on why there are there so few women directors?

I have had good luck. I don't really know how to answer that and I am the kind of mind that if I think about glass ceilings and why people won't watch female protagonists then I just want to go home and lie down. So i can't think that way. All i can think about is that there are a few films I've seen made by women that have inspired me to carry on.

Which ones?

When I first saw Jane Campion's The Piano I realized that my top ten list had all been men. I didn't think I don't have a penis so I can't make movies, I just wanted to make movies. I've turned down projects that would have made me a lot more money and had a lot bigger audience in the past because they didn't inspire me. To do that sucks the life out of you and it takes your energy away. I hope to be one of those filmmakers who can go from very small to bigger and mainstream. I have a huge pop streak in me and I have an experimental streak in me. I'll just shift around.

Discussing the success of the HBO drama Tell Me You Love Me which she directed this year.

There are certain conversations that you have with adults in the room and certain conversations that you have when children are in the room. Adults have to allowed to speak frankly amongst themselves and that's what Tell Me You Love Me was about but there has to be respectful communication with kids and that's what this was. Maybe because I had done Tell Me You Love Me I knew I wouldn't be typed as a little kids director if I do this one. I feel like I can relate to both those sides because I have two daughters 4 and 12. I'm proud of Tell Me You Love Me. I didn't write it. I was able to do a polish on the script so I feel like I was at least able to guide it in a direction. It was very much a collective effort on Kitt Kittredge but Tell Me You Love Me is very much Cynthia's Mort's brain child.

We don't have enough girl heroines in our culture and Kitt is one. What does that mean to you?

If she can be a role model and can be taken seriously by real live girls today I could just die and go to heaven. She's a decent human being, she's hard working, generous, and still has a sense of humor. It's an honor to be able to engage children and I don't take it lightly.