I must confess, despite my role in society as a heterosexual male, to having always liked the character of Nancy Drew. Granted, the books (regardless of when, or whom, were writing them) felt like they were written decades ago, and the mysteries had the relative predictability of a Scooby Doo cartoon. Still, they were an important part of my childhood, and, as such, given an opportunity, and two spare hours, seeing a movie based on these books kinda made sense. Kinda.

Anyway, this movie is based around the idea that Nancy (Emma Roberts...and yes, she is related to Julia) lives in some oddball suburb of...I don't know, some obscure midwestern town. Regardless, it's that kinda quiet town where a 15 year old girl could school the entire police department but it's okay, since the police chief thanks her for her help.

Her father, however, has accepted a job in Los Angeles, so our heroine has to not only deal with being a Riverdale High kinda girl in a modern school, but with also being in a legitimatly dangerous city as a kid detective. As such, her dad (Tate Donovan) makes her promise to stop sleuthing.

Naturally, this becomes a problem, as: a) she's freaking Nancy Drew, and mysteries punch her in the face on a regular basis, and b) the house she (natch) helped pick out is the source of a grand, unsolved mystery.

Anyway, the bulk of the film consists of Nancy trying to solve the mystery of some Hollywood starlet's death while trying to deal with the modern L.A. high school stereotypes, including dopey fat kid, and overly made-up belly shirt girl. All of this while Nancy dresses as a proper girl from, say....1957? (BTW, I'm glad for this...really. I have nothing against teenage girls, but I don't need to find them "hawt". Legal issues aside, it makes me feel wrong.)

All that aside, the plot largely follows that of a Scooby Doo cartoon, complete with suspicious old guy and useless sidekicks. Nancy finds out "things she isn't supposed to know", random people provide her, in casual conversation, with "vital clues", suspects behave in an inherently suspicious manner, etc.

Silliness of plot mechanics aside, it's largely irrelevant, since Nancy Drew is clearly shown to be the most awesome person in the history of mankind. While that is pretty ridiculous, I can accept it because it's frickin' Nancy Drew!!! She should be the modern equivalent of a Gundam pilot; so beyond normal humanity that others can merely look on with admiration.

Anyway, mystery gets solved (but not after the obligatory "girl in peril" scenarios), Nancy's sleuthing gets discovered by her dad, Nancy (spoiler warning) gets the cute guy. It's all pretty paint-by-numbers, so to speak.

That said, the film is quite entertaining. As I described it to a friend, this film gave me big smilies. While the vast majority of this film is utterly predicatble, it really is a lot of fun (particularly if you like Nancy Drew).

Recommended: Yes

Movie Mood: Feel-good Movie
Viewing Method: Other
Film Completeness: Looked complete to me.
Worst Part of this Film: Plot