Dear Eleanor

I came across this movie while looking for Jessica Alba movies I had not watched yet. She has a good role here as the entertainer aunt of one of the teenage girls. My wife and I watched it on DVD from our public library.

Set in 1962 with the Cuban Missile Crisis looming, California teenager Ellie loses her mother to a car wreck right before mom was to deliver an address directed at Eleanor Roosevelt. As teenagers might Ellie and her friend Max (a girl) decide to skip out and take an unlikely road trip to New York to look up Roosevelt and deliver mom's speech.

Except for Max who is overly annoying all the characters are good, in different ways. Mostly it is an entertaining road trip, with dad trying to hunt down the delinquent girls and what happens once they actually arrive in New York.

Nice wig you got there, Max. And Jessica Alba, yeah shes cute too. Nice movie. But please Max's wig hurt my eyes

It is a pretty sweet and engaging story. The characters are likable. I enjoyed it.

Cute movie and story. But the two girls acted too modern and not enough attention was paid to the speech and demeanor of the people to match the 1960s. I think maybe it should have just been set in modern day and it would have still worked and the viewer wouldn't have that in the back of their minds the whole time. Still wondering why that kid's lips are blue.

It's 1962 small town California. Caroline Potter is set to make a speech to her hero, former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt. She is killed in a car accident on the same day that Marilyn Monroe died and her daughter Ellie (Liana Liberato) blames herself for it. Her father Bob Potter (Luke Wilson) is overwhelmed and hopeless with his many kids. Her best friend Max (Isabelle Fuhrman) writes to Eleanor Roosevelt. Billy has a crush on Max and forges a reply to please her. The girls decide to drive to New York so that Ellie could finish an important quest. Along the way, they are joined by escaped convict Frank Morris (Josh Lucas) and Max's Aunt Daisy (Jessica Alba) with the Cuban Missile Crisis in the background. Ellie gets a kiss from hunky Bud (Patrick Schwarzenegger).

It's trying to be a light road trip with some wacky screwball fun. It's trying to be a nostalgic romp but I doubt the writers are from that era. It's trying to be a tearful coming-of-age story but the mother doesn't have enough time to set it up. It's trying to be a female empowering friendship movie but the girls are being teenage girls. They need more than a talkative Max to elevate the friendship to BFF4Ever. The only truly satisfying character plot line comes from Aunt Daisy. Her journey is a good solid standard self-empowering journey. The escaped convict story has all the wrong tones and needs to be eliminated. It's trying to be comedic but elements of the story really clash with that tone. The movie needs to start with more of the mother and her obsession with Eleanor Roosevelt. Once that is established, Ellie's journey would be much more compelling. This is written and directed by people who can't deliver the time period or the story elements to make this work. I do like the characters and the actors which helps. Otherwise, it's not a compelling drive.