THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 12, 1996 TAG: 9607120054
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E11 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Movie Review
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: 66 lines
THE BEST things about ``Harriet the Spy'' are its flaws. Unlike most movies about children, it acknowledges from the outset that the little ones are not angels.
Harriet, the heroine, is, to the more jaundiced viewer, a nosy little brat who takes revenge when her friends turn on her - only to learn that ``little'' lies are necessary if one is to get along.
Of course, to those who look through rose-colored glasses, she is a winsome, sassy lass who dresses in baggy clothes and wants to be a writer. It's the ambiguity in this sixth-grader that makes her a more complex, and believable, girl than is usually pictured in movies.
Neither view, though, is quite that of the beloved Louise Fitzhugh novel which has been beguiling young girls since its publication 32 years ago. In an attempt to transfer it into the 1990s, the moviemakers have kept but a shadow of the original details, making for a rather vague sense of time and place. When Harriet goes to the movies, it is to see ``Mata Hari'' starring Greta Garbo; it's a logical inspiration for her spy career, but the movie is from the '30s. Clothes and cars range from the '30s to the '90s even though the soundtrack is a rather hip '90s sound and the busybody editing is very MTV.
Harriet Welsch announces that ``I want to see everything, and write it all down.'' She keeps a ``secret spy notebook'' in which she records the people and places she observes in her neighborhood.
When the notebook is made public by the snooty class princess, everyone learns the cruel (but true) things Harriet has written about them. Her former friends take vengeance on Harriet. She gets them back by plotting successfully against each one of them.
Michelle Trachtenberg is delightful as the flawed but irresistible Harriet. She comes from the Hayley Mills School of Acting - toothy, plucky and tomboyish.
Rosie O'Donnell is a real surprise as Golly, the no-nonsense Nanny who is the voice of adult wisdom. O'Donnell is usually associated with tougher characters but manages to suggest a caring guru here. Vanessa Lee Chester is Harriet's scientist pal Janie and Gregory Smith is her misfit friend Sport, who has to become an adult to help his father. The legendary Eartha Kitt contributes a funny, but somewhat pointless cameo appearance as an eccentric recluse.
``Harriet the Spy'' is likely to have a tough time at the box office. After all, movies about little girls seldom attract a large audience. (Industry soothsayers claim it's because little boys refuse to go to them). ``The Secret Garden,'' ``A Little Princess'' and last summer's ``The Baby Sitters Club'' all failed.
``Harriet,'' though, has a bit more sass and unpredictability. If Alfalfa and the rest of ``Our Gang'' was still around, we have a feeling they'd let her into the clubhouse. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by PARAMOUNT PICTURES
Harriet (Michelle Trachtenberg), right center, isn't intimidated by
Marion (Charlotte Sullivan) in ``Harriet the Spy.''
MOVIE REVIEW
``Harriet the Spy''
Cast: Michelle Trachtenberg, Rosie O'Donnell, Eartha Kitt,
Vanessa Lee Chester, Gregory Smith
Director: Bronwen Hughes
Screenplay: Douglas Petrie and Theresa Rebeck, based on the novel
by Louise Fitzhugh
MPAA rating: PG (adolescent cruelty, antagonistic parents)
Mal's rating: 3 stars < by CNB