Entertainment

June 29, 2008

Girl Power at the movies

AMY LONGSDORF For The Times Leader

Earlier this summer, when “Sex and the City” exceeded expectations by earning $57 million during its opening weekend, the stage was set for a season of Girl Power at the movies.

Two more female-centric films – “Mamma Mia!” (July 18) and “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2” (Aug. 8) – suddenly had more cache. And “Kit Kittredge: An American Girl,” which opens Wednesday, is now expected to take a big bite out of the Fourth of July box office despite opening against Will Smith’s highly touted “Hancock.”

The mounting buzz for the big-screen “Kit” is no surprise to Abigail Breslin, the movie’s 12-year-old star. She’s been a huge fan of the Mattel doll line for the past four years.

“I collect them all, and I’ve collected them since I was 8,” she says proudly. “Kit was always one of my favorites, so it was very cool to be able to play her.”

Since 1986 when the line was first introduced, Mattel has sold 123 million “American Girl” books, 14 million dolls and 620,000 subscriptions to the “AG” magazine.

Unlike most toy lines, the American Girls each come with lengthy back stories, detailing their histories and the eras in which they grew up.

The new movie, which arrives on the heels of three made-for-TV “American Girl” films, is set in 1934 in the midst of the Great Depression. Initially, Kit’s only problem is convincing the editor at her local Cincinnati newspaper that her stories are worthy of a couple of column inches here and there.

But after Kit’s dad (Chris O’Donnell) loses his car dealership, Kit and her mom (Julia Ormond) are forced to survive by selling eggs, growing vegetables and taking in eccentric boarders (Stanley Tucci, Jane Krakowski, Joan Cusack).

When a crime wave hits Cincinnati, Kit sets out to solve the mystery and clear the name of her wrongly accused pal (Max Thieriot). Friends Ruthie and Stirling are by Kit’s side for an adventure twisty enough to give Nancy Drew sleepless nights.

“What I love about Kit is that she’s very brave and she always wants to help people,” Breslin says. “She does things she doesn’t want to do sometimes -- and does them happily. I think that’s one of the cool things about her.”

The idea for turning the doll line into a series of movies began with actress/producer Julia Roberts and her sister Lisa Gillan. The women first heard about the dolls from their mother, who’d been buying them for years for granddaughter Emma Roberts.

Roberts and Gillan, along with Roberts’ producing partner Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas, produced the three successful TV movies, which began airing in 2004.

For “Kit,” Roberts and company enlisted Canadian director Patricia Rozema. Best known for helming such indie releases as “I’ve Heard The Mermaids Singing” and “Mansfield Park,” Rozema responded immediately to the notion of directing a children’s movie with a spine of reality.

“I love Kit, this little reporter who wants to write, who wants to express herself, who wants to do good,” Rozema says. “So many kids’ movies are about, ‘Oh, I can have love, I am a princess, I own the world now.’

“There aren’t many that show kids and adults trying to hang on when material goods aren’t flowing their way, showing that what’s valuable is not material.”

While Breslin didn’t know much about the Depression when she began working on the movie, her grandmother quickly filled her in about what it was like to navigate through tough economic times.

“I talked to my grandma, and she told me lots of interesting things,” Breslin says. “She said she’d put sugar on her tongue (instead of buying candy). Everybody was in the same situation back then.”

As much as she learned about the financial crisis of the ’30s, there were some hardships that went beyond Breslin’s comprehension.

“I don’t think my grandma had a cell phone back then,” the actress says. “I don’t know what I’d do my without my phone, my computer or my iPod.”

A native of New York, Breslin became interested in acting after watching her older brother, Spencer, ace roles in “The Kid” and “The Cat in the Hat.”

Abigail followed in his footsteps when she accepted the role of Mel Gibson’s paranoid daughter in “Signs.” Assignments opposite Spencer in “Raising Helen” and “Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement” followed.

The young actress showed her emotional range in two films – the little-seen but devastating “Keane” opposite Amy Ryan and Damian Lewis, and the sleeper-hit “Little Miss Sunshine,” which co-starred Toni Collette, Alan Arkin, Greg Kinnear and Steve Carell.

Breslin’s turn in the later film as plump, overeager beauty-pageant contestant Olive Hoover earned her an Oscar nomination as Best Supporting Actress.

Since then, Breslin has partnered with Catherine Zeta-Jones in “No Reservations,” Ryan Reynolds in “Definitely, Maybe” and Jodie Foster in “Nim’s Island.”

Julia Ormond was impressed with Breslin’s ability to balance innocence and experience.

“I admire Abigail,” the actress says. “I don’t think I could have dealt with all she’s dealt with, in terms of success and notoriety, at her age.

“And yet she maintains this enthusiasm and energy. She’s curious. She’s professional. She’s not at all pretentious. She’s not rushing towards (adulthood) too quickly.”

Next up for Breslin is “My Sister’s Keeper,” a drama co-starring Cameron Diaz, Jason Patric and Joan Cusack.

She’s curious. She’s professional. She’s not at all pretentious. She’s not rushing towards (adulthood) too quickly.”

Julia Ormond

Actress

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