Are these times the Great Depression all over again? Food banks have longer lines than before, and so many homes are in foreclosure. Crime seems to be rising--a sign of unemployment and desperation? More people are sharing their homes out of necessity, as out of work folks seek less expensive rents. These ideas kept popping into my mind as I watched a little film from last year called Kit Kittredge: An American Girl (2008). Based on a series of (children's) books by Valerie Tripp which I have not read, this film was a happy surprise, and why not? The director Patricia Rozema made a big splash in the mid 80's with the magical I've Heard the Mermaids Singing and the suspenser The White Room, and recent films have included Mansfield Park and the highly acclaimed HBO film Grey Gardens. The cast includes the exuberant Abigail (Little Miss Sunshine) Breslin, Oscar nominee Joan Cusack, Chris (Batman and Robin) O'Connell, Jane (30 Rock) Krakowski, Stanley Tucci and Wallace Shawn. And it is set in the mid 1930's, when the Great Depression was forcing families out of their foreclosed homes and increasing the homeless (hobo) populations. Not the stuff of children's films. Yet because it deals so bluntly with these and other issues, it is a film that children should see, if only to realize that there are at least two sides to every bad situation, and you can't judge a book (or movie) by its (dvd) cover. Other films I've recently seen about the Great Depression--Bound for Glory and Grapes of Wrath--and now Kit Kittredge, are highly recommended.
--Next blog--something brand new.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment