Abigail Breslin is the standout star in ''Kit Kittredge: An American Girl.'' (Courtesy photo)

By Bob Polunsky
Guest Columnist 

“Kit Kittredge: An American Girl” gives G-rated movies a reason to be in style again.

It’s based on one of the “American Girl” books about Kit Kittredge, a 10-year-old girl played with vitality by Abigail Breslin, the child actress who stole “Little Miss Sunshine” from experienced co-stars and earned herself an Oscar nomination.

She competes with seasoned players again as the heroine of a child’s story told with enough humor to fascinate adults as well as kids. It’s set during the Depression, but the human values it expresses could take place any time. It’s about people helping one another by sticking together and looking out for each other, an everyday feeling for people growing up regardless of what era they live in.

Kit Kittredge reminds us of such characters when she defends the honor of the homeless in her hometown of Cincinnati. Her mother (Julia Ormand) has to sell eggs from the chickens she raises and rent rooms in her house for boarders unable to make ends meet. Her father (Chris O’Donnell) leaves town to look for a job in far-off Chicago.

The family members don’t waste time feeling sorry for themselves because Dad is away. They just remind themselves that he promises to come back, and he always keeps his promises.

The movie concentrates on their life without Father at this point, introducing a clever shyster (Stanley Tucci) trying to steal the Kittredge family’s hard-earned money; a diminutive cross-dresser (Will Smith’s real-life son, Willow Smith) who hides his gender to keep the bad guys away; a teenaged homeless lad (Max Thieriot) looking for a way to make an honest living in spite of hard times and a cheerful traveling librarian (Joan Cusack) who copes with good guys and bad alike while she garners enough laughs to make her character memorable.

Kit deals with all of them the way “Little Orphan Annie” would have if she were in the picture, only Kit does it without trying to show off.

In fact, “Kit Kittredge” is like an episode of “Little Orphan Annie” without frills, and the entire cast jumps on the bandwagon to use the same formula to wring tears, generate knowing chuckles and get emotionally involved with the characters. The result is a sentimental movie with enough human interest to appeal to all age groups.

Many Cincinnati families try to help homeless folks in the film who don’t give up, but just as many of them condemn the homeless as vagrants. They warn each other about them and insist that they be avoided or, if possible, chased out of town. They refuse to accept the homeless at face value so their treatment is a form of bigotry, even when they know that homeless people are victims of circumstance.

Those condemning them don’t give them credit for refusing to give up. But Kit Kittredge does, and that invites comparisons to such memorably sentimental movies as “Annie,” “The Journey of Natty Gann,” “Oliver Twist,” “Little Women,” “Little Men,” “The Wizard of Oz” and other children’s classics that still inspire generations of young people to cope with hard times instead of giving up.

Few child stars can do it with as much authority as Abigail Breslin. She is still “Little Miss Sunshine,” and it’s fun watching her grow up before our eyes and becoming “Kit Kittredge”.     

Studio rating: G
Bob says: “It touches the right nerves”
3 1/2 Stars