Nancy Drew (2007)

Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts) is a mystery solving machine. She joins her lawyer father Carson (Tate Donovan) on a business trip to L.A. Bess (Amy Bruckner) and Georgie (Kay Panabaker) are her best friends. Ned Nickerson (Max Thieriot) is secretly in love with her. She picked an abandoned mansion with a movie star murder mystery to live in but her father makes her promise not to sleuth anymore. It's a struggle to fit into Hollywood high school and not to sleuth. Her only new friend is Corky (Josh Flitter) while Inga Veinshtein (Daniella Monet) is the mean girl. In the end, she can't stop investigating with her friends' help.This is a mishmash of lots of different things while trying to revive this old franchise. The murder mystery is very serious. There is a light Nickelodeon touch with teen star Emma Roberts. There is a good fish out of water story but I don't like the Hollywood setting. I would have liked her hometown girlfriends to get back into the movie with Ned and stay until the end. There are even an explosion, kidnapping and near-death action sequences. This movie is doing too many different things although I like some of those things.

This movie has some serious deficiencies by modern standards: No sex. One kiss. A little bit of violence.Had it come out 40 years ago or so, it would be considered a classic. But in this cynical modern age--the worst aspects of which Nancy seems to reject--people are missing the ingredients that make for a successful Hollywood hit.I enjoyed the movie. It's a bit predictable, the children's acting is uneven, and the plot was a bit silly. But Emma Roberts as Nancy was outstanding. I enjoyed watching her interpret her character with such sincerity. She was witty, composed, in control, and powerful.My main regret is that they've waited so long to produce the sequel; Nancy was 16 or 17 when this movie was made, and she'll be 20 in 2011. But, Hollywood has a way with makeup and smoke and mirrors, so we may not notice too much of an age difference.

I was changing channels on TV one night, "my favorite channel", when I stopped in the face of Emma Roberts as Nancy Drew. Definitely this is not the kind of movie I'm used to watch, also as I'm from Brazil, I didn't know nothing about this character of spy books for children very known in US. I even didn't know this young talented actress, niece of Julia Roberts. I can't say that I enjoyed this film, but Emma Roberts with the 50's style clothes and her gracious made me remember Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany's! For now, I'm going to watch BLOW and ACQUAMARINE, in order to discovery a little bit more about Emma. Also waiting her to appear in comedy/romance (not the ones for teens) and drama movies, where I think she is very capable for. A promise of a great actress!

Who knew a Nancy Drew adventure could be this dull! Emma Roberts tries her best as the young detective who's fond of 'sleuthing', but the script constantly lets her down. There are a few moments of mild satire scattered throughout, with Nancy presented in a 'fish out of water' scenario, but the whole thing has a boring made-for-TV look. The plot is standard Nancy Drew with a mystery involving an old Hollywood star and a seemingly haunted house. This film is best suited for young girls (around twelve) who will probably identify with Nancy Drew. Adults beware.Overall 4/10