Guilty Pleasures

We all have guilty pleasures, right? At least, I hope we all do because I'm about to out mine. Some find solace in daytime soaps, comic books, Barry Manilow, chocolate, well I'm guilty of that as well, but the point is we all have our thing. Mine is mystery. I'm down with it all, from Agatha Christie to Nancy Drew. Which leads me to my next outing: I saw the latest Nancy Drew movie starring Emma Roberts and I was pleasantly surprised with what I found. I idolized Nancy Drew as a little girl and was more than a little anxious about what the movie would do to this classic girl detective. Nancy drove a sweet blue roadster, discovered secret passageways and stuck it to the bad guys every time. This movie delivered all that and more, with an old-school style the likes of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan would do well to notice (sorry, soap-box stowed away for now).
More than copying the books, this movie made Nancy a believable teenager living in 2007, while retaining what made die-hard Drew fans love Nancy from the beginning. Nancy Drew is more than a book for young girls, and I suppose for me too, although I wasn't conscious of this as an eight-year old reader. Nancy Drew is the promise that girls can have adventures just like boys do. Nancy was independent and strong at a time when girls weren't supposed to be either. Nancy Drew the movie is just as promising as the original Nancy was in the 30's. The Nancy Drew of 2007 is much more interested in solving mysteries than her somewhat wimpy love interest, Ned, and more about being true to herself than fitting in and following trends. Nancy Drew is smart, strong, brave, and the anti-Paris in every other way imaginable. However, just because Nancy is a good girl doesn't mean that she avoids danger and does as she's told. In fact, she survives car bombings, kidnappings, and creepy old men, all the while keeping her sleuthing a secret from her stressed, overworked dad (Tate Donavan), a nice update on the 'father-knows-best' Carson Drew of the original books.
So whether or not you like Nancy Drew you at least have to admit that she's a pleasant departure from the ubiquitous party girl the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton have shown us both on and off the big screen.
-----If you're a hardcore Nancy Drew fan check out Girl Sleuth: Nancy Drew and the Women Who Created Her by Melanie Rehak, and for a much edgier version of the girl detective watch Veronica Mars, Seasons 1&2 on DVD, not sure if/when Season 3 will be released.