A Little Help Needs A Little Help

I’m a fan of The Office, particularly the sweetness of couple Jim and Pam, but while I have seen John Krasinski in other roles, I’d never seen Jenna Fischer in anything else. Hence, I was intrigued when my friend Libbie rented A Little Help, the 2010 Michael J. Weithorn movie in which Fischer stars as overwhelmed mom Laura Pehlke.

Fischer brings a darkness to this role that we never see in The Office. When the movie begins, Laura is not a happy person. Her pre-teen son Dennis (newcomer Daniel Yelsky) seems to hate her, and her husband Bob (Chris O’Donnell) is distant. She wants to improve both those relationships, but a few minutes into the movie, Bob dies of an arrhythmia, and she has to learn how to manage as a single mom on shaky financial ground. Just about the only person she can turn to who isn’t trying to run her life for her is her gentle brother-in-law Paul (Rob Benedict), who has loved her since childhood.

This movie is billed as both comedy and drama, but most of the funny moments were too painful for me to laugh at. It’s populated with profoundly miserable people, and bad things keep happening to them. It’s a deeply uncomfortable film, starting with the fact that several scenes take place in the dentist’s office where Laura works. Additionally, it’s set in New York City and begins nearly a year after September 11, 2001, an event central to the film as Dennis, having been forced by his overbearing Aunt Kathy (Brooke Smith) and grandma (Lesley Ann Warren) to attend a new school several towns away, tells his new classmates that his father was a firefighter who saved several people at the World Trade Center before perishing.

It’s a movie filled with broken relationships. The healthiest one we see is that between Paul and his 15-year-old son Kyle (Zach Page), an aspiring musician, and that is threatened by Kathy’s attempts to strong-arm Paul into discouraging Kyle’s music. Interestingly, music not only cements the bond between that father and son, one of Laura’s happiest memories involves singing along to the car radio with Dennis, an activity he usually considers too uncool now.

On the other hand, noise is a consistent source of stress in Laura’s life, from the parrot squawking at the office to the dog constantly barking outside. When Dennis has something he really wants to tell her, he sends her an IM; he’s noticed that she tunes him out along with the rest of it. One of the film’s most powerful moments comes when Dennis releases his neighbor’s dog in an effort to relieve his mother of his incessant barking. Laura runs after the pooch, calling him by name, and he meekly returns to her, whimpering. This seems deeply symbolic of her relationship with her son, whose angst and audacious lies are just his way of reaching out in a world where the person he needs most usually appears indifferent or hostile.

It’s interesting to see Fischer in such a different role, which she occupies well, though it takes most of the movie for Laura to become truly sympathetic. Benedict brings a higher likability factor to Paul, the most endearing character in the movie, but in some ways his story is the most pathetic of all. This is a film about rebuilding broken relationships; none of the three marriages we see is particularly successful, and the parent-child rifts sting. By the end, some measure of healing has begun, but is it enough? Despite touching scenes involving three significant people in Laura’s life, the conclusion, like the rest of the movie, left me feeling empty. I’m not sure if the film failed or if I just wasn’t the right audience, but aside from a few lovely glimmers, A Little Help left me out in the cold.

American Girl Hits the Big Screen in Kit Kittredge, Hopefully Not for the Last Time

When I was about ten years old, I fell in love with the American Girl company. First I read the books, and then I sent away for the catalogs, which I would rapturously peruse for hours, studying each of the dolls from various historical periods and marveling at all the intricate props and costumes available for purchase. My level of obsession was high enough that when Christmas arrived, I received Samantha, a Victorian orphan living with her wealthy grandmother, along with the glasses meant for World War II-era Molly and the Santa Lucia dress belonging to Kirsten, a Swedish immigrant living on the frontier in the mid-1800s. At that time, those were the only three girls in the collection. Now that number has increased to nine. One of the newbies is Kit, whose books take place during the 1930s. Though I hadn't read any of the stories pertaining to her, I trust the quality of the American Girl franchise and was looking forward to watching Kit Kittredge: An American Girl, the first American Girl movie to be released in theaters rather than on television.

Kit, a plucky ten-year-old who dreams of being a reporter, is played by Abigail Breslin, and she's only one of the big names in this charming piece of historical fiction. Others include the dashing Chris O'Donnell as Kit's doting dad Jack, who leaves town to search for work after he is laid off early in the film; the explosive Wallace Shawn as Mr. Gibson, a newspaper editor who sees reporter potential in Kit but isn't about to print one of her stories unless it genuinely wows him; Joan Cusack as eccentric mobile librarian Miss Bond; Stanley Tucci as Jefferson Berk, a charismatic magician with a ridiculous mustache; and Colin Mochrie of Whose Line Is It, Anyway? as a kindly hobo Kit and her friends encounter in a settlement just outside of town.

The context of the tale is the Great Depression, and the situations may ring all too true for many of the children watching. Job loss is rampant, and many of those accustomed to extravagant living find themselves having to drastically alter their lifestyles in order to scrape by. Kit's compassionate mother, Margaret (Julia Ormond), copes by opening her home to boarders. She also hires on Will (Max Thieriot), a teenage transient with a strong work ethic, in exchange for food. Kit's home becomes a place of constant activity, and she and her loyal friends, wealthy Ruthie (Madison Davenport) and destitute Stirling (Zach Mills), are always on the lookout for a promising lead that could win her that much-desired publication.

There's adventure aplenty in this wholesome tale, which encourages generosity, determination and tolerance. It's rare these days to see a G-rated movie, especially a live-action one; Kit Kittredge feels like a throwback to the glory days of family-friendly films. I would certainly consider it appropriate for children and adults to watch together; the movie is likely to entertain as well as educate viewers of all ages. Ann Peacock's script, based in part on the books written by Valerie Tripp, is full of fun little twists that keep even adults guessing. All the clues are laid out so that the audience can draw the correct conclusions, but they are subtle enough that if you'd rather just go along for the ride and be surprised, the solutions to various mysteries won't necessarily jump right out at you.

I was impressed by every aspect of this movie, from the excellent cast to the clever plotting and the attention to detail with the costumes and props. I especially loved Kit's tree house and the cart that she uses to sell eggs later in the movie. Although I've been a fan of American Girl for many years now, I found this movie even better than I expected. Nothing about it suggested to me that it should have been put on television like its predecessors; if anything, it made me wonder if perhaps the earlier films should have gotten the theater treatment as well. I'm eager to investigate that matter, and I hope that, although Kit didn't make much of a splash at the box office, she won't be the last of the American Girls to hit the big screen.