Making a relic of the past a hip, modern character is a tricky task. "The Brady Bunch" movies didn't work,"Starsky and Hutch'' didn't work, I doubt a Hardy Boys movie would ever make it. So "Nancy Drew," by all rights, shouldn't have worked. Especially not a self-aware, clever one directed by the guy who did "The Craft."
But for whatever reason, it does.
Most of the success has to fall on Emma Roberts (niece of Julia) who takes on the roll of the teen detective with a go-get'em attitude, a utility belt full of sleuthing gadgets and an adorable lisp. The film moves out of Drew's flyover town of River Heights to Los Angeles where Drew and her father (Tate Donovan) move into an house once owned by a famous Hollywood actress found dead in her pool. This, paired with the fish out of water high school drama that Drew has to survive, and the promise she made to her father to quit sleuthing, makes things a bit complicated.
Still, Drew is on the case with the help of the portly 12-year-old Corky (Josh Flitter) who is enamored by the kid detective. The mystery itself is par for the course with hidden wills and secret passages galore. After all, Carolyn Keene and the army who worked under the nom de plume weren't writing intricate espionage tales. This is a whodunit at its simplest.
this with Emma Roberts in it,she is very popular now an seems to
be a up an coming new star an a more modern verison