Growing up with
the Stratemeyer mystery books for children, I developed great fondness for teenage
detective Nancy Drew. Up until now, even
as an adult, I still hold her in my heart as one of the best female characters I’ve ever encountered in fiction (nostalgia is a powerful thing).
That being said, through
all this time, I never actually experienced any Nancy Drew media beyond the printed form (I stumbled upon the TV movie starring Maggie Lawson one time many years ago, but it wasn’t interesting enough to keep me watching for more than a few minutes)… until this year’s Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase.
It’s the latest
film adaptation (apparently, there was a 1939 film) of the second Nancy Drew
book, The Hidden Staircase. The source material is set during the first
half of the 20th century (the original was published in 1939, and it
was revised for a 1959 edition), but this movie updates the story for the
present time.
Unfortunately,
its approach of rebooting it for the 21st century is misguided in a
couple parts, particularly in the decision to utilize a considerable amount of
common teen movie tropes.
In relation to
that, I didn’t like its take on Nancy Drew at first. She doesn’t fit how I view the character. She’s played by Sophia Lillis (Beverly from It) in this movie. But even though Sophia is the exact same age
as Nancy, her characterization lacks the maturity that I find inherent to the
character (consider this: the original Nancy Drew is responsible enough to be
trusted with a gun by her father!). I
guess this isn’t exactly the fault of the actress, but of the script, which really
made her come off like a clichéd protagonist of a modern teen comedy. In some ways, she’s like the female version
of Shawn Spencer (don’t get me wrong. I’m
a big fan of Shawn Spencer. But Nancy
Drew should not be Shawn Spencer). She’s
smart, but she impulsively does stupid, irresponsible things. She also has a bit of an “I hate this town” angsty
side. The only thing I initially liked
about Lillis’ Nancy Drew is how she smoothly cracks wise and be organically
sassy – and credit for this one is more on the actor’s performance than the
writing. (I was also thankful that, in updating her to reflect a 21st century youth, the
writers didn’t make her [or any of her friends] a whiny, entitled SJW.)
But once the plot
gets to Nancy Drew starting her investigation on the supposedly supernatural happenings
in this elderly woman’s house, it becomes a more entertaining movie (a huge
reason for this is probably because much of the clichéd teen movie stuff
happens at the beginning). From that
point on, though I still found the movie problematic at times, I started enjoying
it a bit more.
Moreover, Lillis’
Nancy grew on me over time. Then around
the start of its third act, Nancy has a moment where she reflects and actually grows
in maturity. That was when it hit me: she
was having a character arc after all, and apparently, this entire movie functions
as an “origin story” for her to develop into that reliable teen detective that
I know of – or, at least, an agreeable alternate 21st century version
of it. Thus, I got to like Sophia Lillis’
Nancy Drew in the end.
There are
hundreds, if not thousands, of Nancy Drew
books in existence. The Hidden Staircase is, coincidentally, one of the books that I did
read (several of times) and do own. The
movie doesn’t completely follow the plot of the book, but it utilizes a lot of
its story beats. Therefore, the mystery
is somewhat spoiled for me since I had an idea on what was going on and who the
culprit is. I would have definitely
enjoyed the movie more if there were unknowns for me to discover.
I was also
reminded while watching the movie that Helen Corning – not Bess Marvin and Georgia
“George” Fayne, Nancy’s best friends and usual sidekicks – is Nancy Drew’s
companion in the early books, including The
Hidden Staircase. Helen is played in
this movie by Laura Slade Wiggins (who convincingly played a teen despite being
30 years old!), and I really liked her chemistry with Lillis’ Nancy. She starts off as a “mean girl” foil for the
teen sleuth, but as they work on the mystery together, they gradually become
friends. The dynamic is somewhat hackneyed,
but it’s honestly one of the engaging aspects of the narrative.
Bess and George
are in this movie, too (played by Zoe Renee and Mackenzie Graham, respectively), but it seems like they aren’t cousins in this universe
(George is African-American in this movie).
They aren’t as compelling on the narrative as Helen though. Also, it amused me that this version of Bess
is depicted as a brainy wallflower-type – the polar opposite of who Bess is in
the books. I guess she was written this
way so that she and Wiggins’ Helen – who has the appearance and personality that
are more Bess-like – wouldn’t become redundant.
In summary, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is flawed
but fun. It’s not a perfectly lovable adaptation. But looking at this in the perspective that
it’s a movie that is more oriented toward younger audiences than old school
fans, it’s actually fairly good. If I
were much younger, I might have even loved it.
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