Movies

THEME
In the worst of times, you need to be strong, tolerant, true to yourself and kind to the people who need it the most in order to aid survival and no matter how tough things get, Dont let it beat you. (Rozema, 2008)

PLOT
 Set in Cincinnati at the beginning of the Great Depression, the film begins with Kit in her tree-house club typing frantically on her typewriter in an attempt to follow her dream of becoming a young reporter.  The people of Cincinnati are slowly beginning to feel the brunt of the depression as friends start losing their houses and Kits father loses his car dealership. Her mother, who was once having tea parties for the neighbors, now has to take in boarders and sell eggs to survive while her husband moves to Chicago to look for work. Tension and mistrust is in the air as there have been plenty of robberies and muggings where a few hobos have been suspected of committing the crime. This is hard to believe for young Kit because she has had the pleasure of meeting a few hobos herself, namely Will and Countee, who take her to the hobo forest where a whole lot of respectable but unemployed people live. She wants to tell their story and try to get rid of the blemish that has stuck to their identity but the newspaper editor will not stand for it. Meanwhile, the drama continues in her house and even though there is a lot of work, the boarders are an entertaining motley crew of magicians, dancers, nurses and mobile librarians. The story reaches its peak when Kits mothers safety box and Kits best friends house is robbed. When Will is blamed, Kit doesnt believe it was him because of the recurring observation of a tattoo on the thiefs arm.  The young aspiring sheriff along with her two best friends, Ruthie and Sterling get to the bottom of the case when they discover that the magician, his cousin and his girlfriend (the mobile-librarian) are the masterminds and eventually succeed in getting them arrested with a little help from, none other than, the hobos.

III.CHARACTERIZATION
 Even though Kit is the protagonist of the story, I feel Mrs. Kittredge is the character that develops the most. At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to Mrs. Kittredge (played by Julia Ormond) as a beautiful, kind, positive soul who is like a beam of light in these dark times. Her generosity and kindness is evident in the scene where we are first introduced to her, Will and Countee. She is held in stark contrast to the company she keeps  is clearly the only selfless and open-minded soul amongst all the other ladies at the tea party, as we can tell by their comments and expressions. Mrs. Kittredge is a survivor and is not afraid of facing the future. She adopts an abandoned dog even if it means having another mouth to feed just so that her daughter is happy and so the dog is not left to fend for itself. She is compassionate toward Will and Countee and even gives Will her husbands old shoes. She feels sorry for her daughter because she has been made to clean and work when, at her age, she should be out playing. Later on, however, we see her strength slowly wearing out as communication with her husband in Chicago starts becoming less frequent. She stops laughing and smiling and looks worn-out. In the end, when she sees her husband, she breaks down and embraces him and her emotional plight comes through in that one scene.

IV. FILM AS LITERATURE
Irony
 One case of irony in the film is that while the hobos are the ones being held responsible for all the crimes in Cincinnati, in the end they are the ones who are instrumental in catching the real criminals.
The other case of irony is that the real criminals are actually the rich people and the hobos prove themselves a more respectable part of society than the self-proclaimed gentry.
Symbolism
The tattoo is a recurring symbol in the film and symbolizes the evil.
The other recurring symbol is the tree-house club oath, which symbolizes trust.
Foreshadowing
When Mr.Kittredge says Dont let it beat it you, it foreshadows the events to come and the strength Kit will need to get through the times.
4. The four conflicts
Man with man  There is a constant battle between the rich and not so rich or poor, whether these are still employed versus recently unemployed or slightly-better-off versus hobos.
Man with himself Kit doesnt ever want to sell eggs or wear chicken-feed dresses, but when the time comes she realizes that making the most of their resources at the time was more important than being teased at school and so she does away with her inhibitions.
Man with tech Kit almost destroys her typewriter when she cannot get it to work but then her father tells her a story about his trouble with a car which he overcame, thereby helping kit overcome her obstacle.

V. FILM TECHNIQUE
1. Playing the Audience
When Kit and Ruthie are about to get caught snooping around in Mr. Burks room, Sterling throws a pebble into the window with the hobo sign for danger on it in order to warn the girls. We see Ruthie pick up the stone and realize that its a warning and the shot is cut to Mr.Berk and his cousin walking into the room, heightening the suspense in the scene.
2. Lighting
Most of the film is hot in high key except for scenes like in the charity restaurant and the hobo jungle, which is slightly dimmer to create the grim mood of it. The film, on the whole, is pretty bright since most of the scenes take place in the day.
3. Camera Angle The scene where Mr.Kittredge is apologizing to Kit after she catches him at the charity restaurant uses a high shot to show Kits point of view from the tree house  a low angle to show his point of view of Kit.
4. Sound The music aids in establishing the setting, especially in the opening scene where old, 30s music is playing and the camera is panning over old black and whit photographs of important people of the time. Sounds like that of the type-writer and the clicking of the old camera also aid in doing the same.
5. Transition shots
At the beginning of the film, the camera is focused on Kits roller blades when a tram cuts the shot and later, through the tram, we see her roller blades come to a halt again. Thus, the tram serves as a transition between the shot of Kit moving to a shot of her coming to a halt.
6. Reaction Shot
When Mrs. Kittredge picks up the plate of sandwiches to offer Will and Countee, the camera focuses on the expression of one of her guests behind her who is surprised at her hosts behavior.
7. Subjective Camera Shot The shot of the nuts on the table at the tea party is taken from a low level to represent Countees point of view.
8. Close up shot A close-up of the footprint in the mud after the robbery indicates that the criminal could be Will, adding an element of mystery and suspense.
9. Long Shot  The shot where Mr. Berk  his cousin turn onto a dirt road when going to search for the loot is a long shot to  give the audience a spy-like perspective.

VI. THE ENDING The ending is romantic, because it perpetuates the myth that in the end, everything works out for the best. Everyones problems are solved in one way or another - the thieves are caught, so the hobos are off the hook, the rewards money pays the Kittredge houses mortgage, Kits father returns home and the editor shows up at Kits house to tell her that shes a reporter and eventually ends up getting together with the dance instructor.  A realistic ending would have been if the father had found work in Chicago and sent them money so that together, they would have all contributed to paying off the mortgage.

VII.FILM REVIEW
 1. Roger Ebert  All of this (the missing loot, Kits ambitions and Those Important Clues) are of course the very lifeblood of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books, and Kit Kittredge not only understands that genre but breathes life into it.
I would agree with Roger Ebert in the sense that Kit Kittredge is a clever adaptation of young detective novels. Right from the beginning there are little clues and foreshadowing instances like the observation of the tattoo, the red wallet and the footprint in the mud. We learn early in the film that Kit wants to be a reporter and she has a knack for being observant. The drama and the mystery are all carried out in a very realistic and human setting and in a time of great distress making it easier to identify with and adding a universal message of friendship and trust.

2. Ty Burr The Great Depression it shows us is sugar-coated but only mildly so, which is to say its seen through the clear, optimistic eyes of a 10-year-old.
I dont entirely agree because the reason the Great Depression seems sugar-coated in the film is because the entire film has an extremely bright look to it right from the lighting to the colors used in the film. Even the chicken-feed sacks are a bright and beautiful blue However, we must keep in mind that the movie is set at the dawn of the great depression  therefore, times were not half as bad yet. It is true to say that the movie is an optimistic childs worldview but the idea of the film is to portray a creative way of overcoming financially tough times rather than the damage caused by the Depression.

3. Jessica Reaves Less predictably, she and producer Lisa Gillan and executive producer Julia Robertshave skillfully introduced messages of proto-feminismand the best of Americas leftist ideology (to each according to his or her abilities and needs) into a big-budget summer movie.
I agree because throughout the movie, we see that the men have gone to look for jobs but cant find any and it is the women who are doing all the work in the film. Mrs.Kittredge is making money by taking in boarders and selling cloth and eggs, while Kit is helping with the chores. In the end, it is Kit who manages to pay off the mortgage for the house and become a successful reporter. Political undertones of the film come to light in scenes like the tea-party where one of the guests passes a comment saying that her husband believes in letting the hobos go hungry so that they wouldnt come to their town, or in the scene where the only thing the man who was robbed notices about the thief is that he was a hobo. Even the newspapers dont want to print anything nice abut the hobos because its not what people want to hear  they just want an easy target. (Rozema, 2008)