After a While, 'Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase' Gets Fairly Fun

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 20^th 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 21^st 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 21^st 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 21^st 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.