Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase

We took our ten-year-old daughter and her nine-year-old friend to see this movie yesterday.  They both really liked it, as did my wife and I.  They did a good job updating the character and putting her in a contemporary world while keeping her core attributes intact. She's smart, plucky, brave and has a strong sense of justice.  She's a little edgier than you might remember (let's just say that local law enforcement doesn't always approve of her meddling or methods).

She has interesting and strong friends and there's some good exploration of relationships among teenage girls.  The movie doesn't allow the easy out of just hating the popular rich girl in town, for instance.

What surprised me is that the closest theatre playing the movie was the AMC in East Hanover, and I heard almost no marketing for this movie but saw a review in the Star-Ledger.  It's a good movie that I think parents can enjoy with kids and it offers a fun and strong female main character whose storyline is not intertwined with the need to land a boyfriend.  It's not in your face but I thought it was pretty empowering and the kind of movie I'd like to see more of.  

By the way Nancy has her origins right her in Maplewood, former home of the Stratemeyer Syndicate which published the books.

Nice. My mother bought the whole collection for me, book by book.

And now its not even playing in Hanover.  Sad because this seems like exactly the sort of thing that my daughter would be into.

Klinker said:
And now its not even playing in Hanover.  Sad because this seems like exactly the sort of thing that my daughter would be into.

I'm really glad we went to see it yesterday then.

Klinker had you even heard of the movie?  Like I said I feel like it came out of nowhere.  I managed to find one trailer online that turned out to be just about a 30 second clip of the movie. I could have made it with the video editor on my phone.

It's got a 76% audience favorable rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  Maybe it'll show up on Netflix, but I like taking a family trip to the movies.

I really feel like it's pretty difficult finding good entertainment that's appropriate for my daughter's age.  She's outgrown a lot of kids' stuff, but I don't feel like she's quite ready for some of the stuff for teens.    

mrincredible said:

Klinker had you even heard of the movie?  

I had not.

mrincredible said:

I really feel like it's pretty difficult finding good entertainment that's appropriate for my daughter's age.  She's outgrown a lot of kids' stuff, but I don't feel like she's quite ready for some of the stuff for teens.    

 I agree with this 100%.  There's little kid movies and adult movies but very little targeted at this age group.  

As for this one, its definitely on my radar and so we will be sure to catch it when it is released on digital.  Thanks for the heads up!

(Especially if you want strong female leads who aren't wrapped up in getting a boy).