Review: Maybe not something very original, but for a fun night at the movies this is a darn good choice.
No other word can describe this movie better than fun. I simply had tons of fun watching this movie. For the brisk hour and a half length there was hardly a moment I was not entertained. The mystery is fun to try to figure out. It is not the hardest mystery to solve in the world, but it has enough twists and turns to keep the audience interested. The haunting of the house brings an extremely vivid and atmospheric feel to the film, and even if you figure out who done it, there is still the question of how. All this fits into a solution that works extremely well. The interplay between Nancy (Sophia Lillis) and Helen (Laura Wiggins) is fantastic. The actresses play off each other very well and the relationship is written in a completely believable way. This is a hard type of relationship to pull off in a movie and it is done perfectly here. Some of the scenes between them are even a bit touching and genuinely so. Nancy's relationship with her dad is also very sweet and engaging. This movie uses quite a bit of humor and most of it is well done. This probably won't be a movie you will often laugh out loud at, but more jokes land than fall, and many definitely made me smile. A lot of these moments came from Flora (Linda Lavin), a delightfully enjoyable character who gets the best comedic lines. Sophia Lillis as Nancy Drew is perfect. She is very charismatic and likable. She also brings just a lot of undeniable charm to even the corniest parts of this movie.
This movie takes place in modern day and not all of the modernization works. The opening with Nancy skateboarding down the street with a rock song on the soundtrack, makes it feel like the movie is trying to hard too make her cool, as if there every could be a time when Nancy Drew wasn't cool. Luckily she proves herself to be naturally very cool very quickly. Talking about modernization, the less said about the virial video the better (that scene is the only part of the movie that actually feels embarrassing).
Despite these faults, again if you are looking for a fun time at the movies, Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase is it.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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