Having grown up reading such Nancy Drew books as The Secret of the Old Clock and The Hidden Staircase, I was naturally curious about Nancy Drew, the 2007 movie starring the delightful Emma Roberts as Nancy Drew. It was startling to know that she was born in 1991, the year before I met my husband, but, then, it’s been a few years since I was a regular reader of Nancy Drew mysteries.
It was interesting to see how Nancy Drew, the movie, blended in the old with the new. While there were modern technological devices, such as cell phones, River Heights still had the look of an old-fashioned Midwestern town, they took the train to Los Angeles like they would have back in the 1940s, and Nancy still drove her roadster. Even boyfriend Ned Nickerson, played by Max Thieriot, looked like a blast from the past.
Nancy’s Dad, Carson Drew, played by Tate Donovan, was somewhat how I pictured Mr. Drew, although I was sure he smoked a pipe. But the character most missing was the endearing housekeeper, Hannah Gruen. But bringing Nancy and her father out to Los Angeles may explain why housekeeper Hannah wasn’t in the film, although she could have added a dose of old-fashioned comfort to the scenes set in River Heights.
The Hollywood High scenes were a sharp contrast to River Heights and the plot was entertaining. After all, you can’t have a story set in Los Angeles without a Hollywood actress. And what’s better than a dead Hollywood actress with a secret grown daughter set to inherit her money? When Nancy gets close to solving the mystery, naturally there has to be somebody threatening her life because her success would mean their failure. But, alas, all’s well that ends well. And when Nancy and her father go back to River Heights, well, Nancy finally gets her first kiss from Ned.
Kathy Holmes
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