'Nancy Drew' an uneasy mockery/tribute hybrid

By PHIL VILLARREAL
Arizona Daily Star
Wednesday, June 13, 2007

In "Nancy Drew," the most compelling mystery is whether the filmmakers are trying to mock or pay respect to the source material with their convoluted dramedy.

It's a brain twister so tough it would trouble the girl detective.

Director Andrew Fleming stops short of a wholesale "The Brady Bunch Movie"-style mockery, while refusing to play it straight and reinvent an anachronistic franchise for the modern era, as Michael Mann did with "Miami Vice."

The film settles into an uneasy mockery/tribute hybrid, shoehorning an overarching mystery and a weak romance into scads of tongue-in-cheek references. The tone is most similar to the "Scooby-Doo" films, which isn't a compliment.

If Mildred A. Wirt Benson, who used the pen name Carolyn Keene for her "Nancy Drew" books, were still living, she may well have wanted to slap Fleming across the face.

And yet unlike "Scooby-Doo," "Nancy Drew" has a soul, which is mostly due to the pluckiness of its star, Emma Roberts, who plays her character with tenacious conviction. The 16-year-old Roberts, whose smile flashes with as much wattage as that of her Aunt Julia, is possibly the only one on-screen who believes in the concept of a teenage sleuth who outworks the police force in between homework and dinner.

Fleming, who also wrote the script with Tiffany Paulsen, certainly doesn't help her out, dressing Nancy in 1950s garb and surrounding her with silly mystery-film archetypes. Nearly everyone on-screen comments on how ridiculous Nancy's demeanor and interests are, but Nancy just shakes it off and forges on.

Having moved from her Midwestern home with her father for the summer, Nancy investigates the former owner of their rental house, actress Dehlia Draycott (Laura Elena Harring), whose first name echoes the "Black Dahlia" Hollywood murder mystery. Dehlia went into hiding for several months and was killed the night of her return.

Breaking a promise to her dad that she'll give up sleuthing, Nancy sneaks into action, piecing together clues and snooping on suspects. She bribes record-keepers with pastries she keeps in tins, dodges SUVs driven by bad guys trying to run her down, pulls out a trusty grappling hook to avoid falling off a building and leaves adversaries stunned with deadpan quips.

The mystery itself is so vanilla and predictable, it could easily be replaced with anything else and not be missed. This is probably what Warner Bros. is hoping for -- a chain of ready-made, cookie-cutter sequels. At least the studio has found the right star. Roberts is as unflappable as Sean Connery's James Bond.

"It really gets my goat when someone tries to kill me," Nancy says without irony. "It makes me want to try harder."

That's the spirit.

2.5 stars out of 4

Rated: PG for mild violence, thematic elements and brief language.

Family call: Fine for kids.

Running time: 90 minutes.

(Read Phil Villarreal's blog at scrippsnews.com/philmguy and contact him at pvillarreal(at)azstarnet.com.)