Harriet the Spy (PG)
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Well, this is based on a book, though I never read it. I basically wanted to check it out because it stars Michelle Trachtenberg. She plays 11-year-old Harriet Welsch, who wants to be a writer. Her parents are rather wealthy, I guess, but not around much. So she has a nanny, played by Rosie O'Donnell, whom she calls "Golly." They're very close. The only other people Harriet seems to be close to are her two best friends, "Sport" (played by Gregory Smith, for all you "Everwood" fans), and Janie. Sport lives with his dad, who is himself an aspiring writer, but as yet has had no success, so they're fairly poor. Janie is an aspiring scientist, whose experiments are kind of weird.

While Harriet may not be close to any of the other kids in her class, she does observe them all, including the annoyingly stuck-up and bossy Marion Hawthorne, who is always elected class president even though not a lot of kids seem to actually like her. Anyway, Harriet kept a notebook in which she took notes on everything... she wants to see everything in the world, write everything down. I guess this is advice she got from Golly. So... she fancies herself a spy, though actually she seems more like a peeping tom. She roams around the city watching people, mostly through windows. And she writes what she sees.

For a good while the movie seemed kind of boring to me, but still watchable. And then eventually the other kids get ahold of Harriet's notebook, and no one likes what she's written about them. So she becomes an outcast, even to Sport and Janie. Plus Golly had recently left her job as nanny, so... Harriet was basically all alone, and her parents really didn't understand her, and life was miserable. The movie started reminding me of other stuff, like Mean Girls and Read It and Weep. And um, I guess it got a bit more interesting than it was at first. Class taking revenge on Harriet, Harriet taking revenge on class, parents taking Harriet to child psychologist, and so forth....

Eventually, um... well, everything turns out alright. Pretty good, actually. And Harriet starts writing in something other than her notebook. She learns to both apologize and to tell little white lies... Actually, Golly told her to do those things, but I'm not sure anything Harriet did after that seemed like lying to me, white or otherwise. I dunno. Still, I think it's interesting that the movie even presents that as a good idea, it seems like almost anything else I've ever seen takes the stance that even little white lies are generally bad. So, it's a bit of a refreshing change, I guess. But whatever, the most important thing Harriet learns is that being an individual can be hard, but it's still best to be yourself and just accept that it's going to be hard sometimes. And of course, friendship is important. Another good lesson.

Anyway, the movie was okay, definitely better than I expected. (Though the plot was definitely different than I expected, because as I said, she's not really a spy at all.) But... it's still not something I'm sure I feel the need to see again. Some good lessons, decent enough acting, cute kids, and a fun song & dance number to close the show... not bad, but yeah, not great, either....