A writer while describing the life and work of John Le Carré said this: "Writer and spy are two lonely professions, carried of emotions and both are developed under a certain load of tension". Nothing is more adequate than such quote when the analyzed person is the great Le Carré, author of treasures like "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", "Smiley's People" among many other espionage novels. The same can't be said to the main character of "Harriet the Spy" neither about the story, that almost reached such description (and it could have been way better).
So, little Harriet (Michelle Trachtenberg) wants to be a writer and for such she pretends to be like a spy who sees everything, writing down all the things she sees, from random and somewhat pointless happenings to making truthful remarks about her friends and school mates. But when her diary is stolen by her most ferocious enemy things can turn out to be real bad for her if such descriptions be known to everyone she knows.
A cute movie, nice to watch but that doesn't help us much. Fine, this a movie for kids and for them is prefect, very enjoyable, but those kind of flicks work better if they attract mature audiences as well, even if using two or three jokes for them. The cast assembled here with names like Trachtenberg, Rosie O'Donnell, Robert Joy and Gregory Smith makes of "Harriet the Spy" quite a good film, and we can excuse some of its problems.
The main focus that a good writer is made with observations and notes only isn't much handy (as Harriet discovers). Above all, and I can't believe this was left out of the movie, a good writer must be a great reader of all sources and different types of readings, must have a background of readings. And if I'm making too much fuzz over a kid's movie, too much complications, is because is that I wanted to see an intelligent work, with this kind of plot but in a dramatic way, with lots of suspense, a teenager who wants to be a writer but gets involved with more and more trouble while covering a story. Instead, we have an emo tale filled with corny moments. But that's OK. 6/10
So, little Harriet (Michelle Trachtenberg) wants to be a writer and for such she pretends to be like a spy who sees everything, writing down all the things she sees, from random and somewhat pointless happenings to making truthful remarks about her friends and school mates. But when her diary is stolen by her most ferocious enemy things can turn out to be real bad for her if such descriptions be known to everyone she knows.
A cute movie, nice to watch but that doesn't help us much. Fine, this a movie for kids and for them is prefect, very enjoyable, but those kind of flicks work better if they attract mature audiences as well, even if using two or three jokes for them. The cast assembled here with names like Trachtenberg, Rosie O'Donnell, Robert Joy and Gregory Smith makes of "Harriet the Spy" quite a good film, and we can excuse some of its problems.
The main focus that a good writer is made with observations and notes only isn't much handy (as Harriet discovers). Above all, and I can't believe this was left out of the movie, a good writer must be a great reader of all sources and different types of readings, must have a background of readings. And if I'm making too much fuzz over a kid's movie, too much complications, is because is that I wanted to see an intelligent work, with this kind of plot but in a dramatic way, with lots of suspense, a teenager who wants to be a writer but gets involved with more and more trouble while covering a story. Instead, we have an emo tale filled with corny moments. But that's OK. 6/10