Kit Kittredge is Sweet, Simple

The young girls who love the “American Girl” series are pretty much guaranteed to love Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, critics agree. Rex Reed of the New York Observer calls it “a brisk, beautifully conceived period piece that spells entertainment with a capital E,” though he admits it’s “so sweet and sanitized it makes me feel almost guilty for liking it.”

The movie follows its eponymous heroine on her quest to become a girl reporter and exonerate some wrongly accused hobo boys. Its Great Depression setting is well drawn and “couldn’t feel more timely,” writes Rafer Guzmán of Newsday. But “there's nothing complex about this movie,” warns the Chicago Tribune’s Jessica Reaves. “It's all straight-ahead, clean-cut hijinks… strictly a kids' movie.” (More movie review stories.)