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Every once in awhile a film comes along that approaches teen years with wit and intelligence. Little Secrets is such a film. Scriptwriter Jessica Barondes had her ear tuned to teens when she wrote a story about Emily who keeps her life happy by keeping other people's secrets and dispensing advice---for a fee. But this girl's advice keeps the perpetrator from facing the truth, something Emily avoids in her own life as well. The film has heart and how long this façade can continue is the heart of Little Secrets that has already received an endorsement from the Heartland Film Festival by breaking box office records at that festival. 

Emily (Evan Rachel Wood from television's Once and Again) was the only child in her house, but now Mom is expecting a baby. There are an assortment of children in Emily's neighborhood with one problem in common: no one to talk to about problems, so Emily sets up a booth and charges a small fee to listen to the secrets and offer solutions. This gives Emily something to do, as she stayed home from summer camp to rehearse for an audition. Emily is a gifted violinist with an understanding teacher (Vivica A. Fox from Independence Day) and hopes to someday play with the symphony. Enter new kids in the neighborhood, Philip (Michael Angarano from Music of the Heart) and his older brother, David (David Gallagher from television's Seventh Heaven.) Secrets begin to pile on Emily and before she knows it, the secret keeper is heading for burn out.

The cast makes this film, especially the young actors. There is my favorite, the boy who is digging to China, the girl who rescues cats and the boy who loves candy but all his mother allows him to eat are the chewy rubbery ones. Adults are there as backdrops. Moms and dads are well meaning, but puzzled over their children's behavior. 

Little Secrets takes place in a clean town where the houses are brand-new, the window frames are alike, no cracks in the sidewalks and everyone wears a safety helmet when on a bicycle. If you have a goal, such as Emily's symphony aspirations, there is nothing or no one to stand in your way. 

Director Blair Treu and scriptwriter Jessica Barondes had previously worked on Wish Upon a Star together. Treu says, "This simple little story really sneaks up on people of all ages. The common theme of honesty and the consequences of keeping or sharing a secret is something we can all identify with."

Little Secrets is much like a made-for-TV movie the family could watch but be aware of the scene where mom goes to the hospital to have her baby. It would be for children ages eight and up. If you remember your childhood and had a big secret you felt you had to share, the movie will bring back those times. 

Copyright 2002 Marie Asner 8/14/2002

Director Blair Treu says of his new film Little Secrets, "I feel that if I'm in a position to do something positive, something that's uplifting for families, then I should portray stories and people in a positive, redemptive light. It's not that I want to preach through the medium of film, it should still be about entertainment. That's why people go to movies in the first place. I just happen to think it's nice to walk out of a movie feeling a little better about the world or a little better about yourself than when you laid down your seven bucks."

There are probably many families who will agree that Little Secrets is fine family entertainment. It has attractive people, living in unblemished neighborhood. It's heroine not only has lofty aspirations as a violinist, but she strives to be a trustworthy friend to the crowd of adorable children in her neighborhood. Fortunately for her, these neighborhood kids don't have serious problems. They have bite-sized crises: one broke a piece from dad's antique chess set, another has lied about her age to impress a teen idol over the Internet. These traumas can be solved with a few shed tears, a confession or two, and then... smiles all around. 

For some, such simple emotional catharses are indeed "entertainment". But Treu is wrong on one point: "That's why people go to the movies in the first place." Perhaps some do. But most moviegoers I know would prefer to see something they haven't seen before, something more complicated than your average Disney Sunday Night Movie where life's problems are simple and are solved with simple answers. And many of us hope to encounter more than just entertainment. Even kids' movies can aspire to the level of art.

My patience wears thin during movie-length doses of this stuff, when there is so much available to families that is richer, more challenging, more complex, more believable, and more rewarding. But I'm measuring this film with the wrong yardstick. This is a film that clearly announces itself as simple sanitized family entertainment. So, I will try to be patient and fair in my review. 

For parents seeking entertainment that is "safe" for their kids, Little Secrets has moderate charms. Like an episode of "Touched By an Angel" or an "after-school special," it is filled with smiling and endearing characters, played with enthusiasm by appealing actors and actresses.

Here's the set-up: Evan Rachel Wood (TV's Once and Again) plays Emily Lindstrom, a gifted violin student who has decided to skip summer camp so she can prepare for an audition. She wants to join the San Francisco Youth Orchestra, and is willing to sacrifice time with her friends to practice.

Plus, she has a business to run. Like Lucy running the psychiatry booth in "Peanuts", Emily has a secret keeper's booth in her neighborhood. For 50 cents, she will listen to and keep your awful secret. Kids line up to tell her their secrets, and she helps them by being completely trustworthy, including helping them hide whatever priceless family heirlooms they have broken. Of course, keeping secrets is a virtue as long as one does not become an accomplice in dishonesty. Emily's confidentiality agreements lead her straight into two, three...ten... serious moral dilemmas, and of course they will all be sorted out in the end. So it's no surprise at all when we learn Emily has a secret of her own that trumps them all. Thus Emily becomes a kind of meddling heroine, like a modern day Emma.

Kudos to Writer/Producer Jessica Barondes for having the guts to create a teenage heroine who loves classical music and who aspires to be a symphony violinist. Will thousands of Britney-wannabes be able to relate? 

Further, I applaud Barondes's efforts to give teens a story about the danger of secrets. While most of the secrets in this movie are fairly tame, a lot of teens carry around huge, heavy, burdensome secrets that they would do well to learn to share. 

I was also impressed to see a "family movie" in which black characters are as important... and as much a part of everyday life... as their Caucasian counterparts. Vivica A. Fox plays the pivotal role of the violin teacher with a subtlety and a grace that can't be found in the rest of the movie. Recent genre attempts to “mix it up” have only shown how much white filmmakers tend to stereotype folks of other colors and cultures. This film has two African Americans who are not treated differently or given many “cultural clichés” to utter. 

Treu shows a remarkable stylistic restraint here, resolutely refusing to borrow rapid-cut editing or any of the other trendy effects to make her movie “cool”. He keeps it old-fashioned, right down to the virtues and the excessively weepy finale. 

Unfortunately, the restraint he shows in style is not carried over into storytelling. Little Secrets is like ten Disney Sunday Night Movies in one, with all ten tear-jerking, sentimental climaxes happening at once. The last half-hour is a marathon of culminating crises, and, in the spirit of TV movies, all of these one-dimensional characters walk away with their loose ends tied up and their Happily Ever After fate sealed. Will the badly-injured character pull through? Will Emily be able to pursue her dream? Will the little boy who lied finally tell the truth? Do you suppose the pregnant lady might have her baby before it's all over? Do you suppose the two appealing teens will notice that they both spend their money at The Gap, and thus they are a perfect match?

It would have been interesting if the film had explored some of the ideas that would have been more challenging to kids. How did Emily develop into an ambitious violinist instead of a trendy high school flirt? How will her young neighbor David get over his hopeless crush on her? How do children who have lost their parents work through the grief and loneliness? This story, however, is interested in easier-to-solve problems. 

It also might have been more compelling if Emily had been given some rough edges. She remains too angelic, too much every mother's dream daughter to be very compelling, at least to this viewer. There is no smudge in her makeup, not a hair out of place. (No, that annoyingly constant dangling strand of blonde is obviously quite deliberate.) As serious as she is about her violin, Emily keeps one foot firmly planted in Barbie-land. She's as immaculately kept as her neighborhood, which must be surrounded by constant cop patrols because there is never a moment of tension, nary a drifter or a lowrider or a loud stereo or a beer bottle by the side of the road. No one in this town ever smokes. None of them have scars. And they’re all fairly wealthy. 

A couple of characters develop interesting personalities-- most especially Michael Angarano as Philip, the quirky young neighbor boy who has a crush on Emily. Angarano, who was wonderful in his role as the young William in first fifteen minutes of Almost Famous, gives Philip guts. He steals the film from Wood, giving a third-act confession scene real energy and emotions that are earned. 

Philip and his family have just moved in next door, and Philip knows that if Emily meets his cocky, stylish older brother, then his chances to win Emily's heart are zero. Will Emily go against the grain and fall for a nobler soul, even though he is younger? 

Are you kidding? The teenage girls in the audience want to see Emily win the handsomest boy around. This is a family movie about a teen, so you can bet your seven dollars that there's going to be a "first kiss" before this is over, even if it has very little to do with the main plot. 

As the film enters its final 30 minutes, you should either get the box of Kleenex, if you're the sentimental type, or run. There are an impressive number of emotional dilemmas to be resolved. And they are all resolved, in the traditionally teary fashion, full of confessions and reconciliation and embraces. I anticipated all but one, a rather audacious third act emergency that raised the stakes significantly.

So, all in all, Treu and Barondes have accomplished their goals. They have made an easy-to-swallow, "feel-good" entertainment that will please moviegoers seeking such things. Good morals are loudly affirmed, good kids have their frowns turned to smiles, and sexy good girls have their dreams come true. It's better made than a lot of such movies, and you'll certainly get more tears for your dollar. 

But if you want "family entertainment" that has surprises, memorable characters, and less sentimental epiphanies, this year has offered The Rookie, with its complex characters and powerful parable. The animated Lilo and Stitch, Stuart Little 2_ and Ice Age have also risen above their genre's demands. It frequently amazes me how cartoon fantasies have become far more gutsy, entertaining, and relevant than most live-action family dramas. If you find one that breaks the trend, please let me know.

If you have seen the movie, then you might want to think about these questions. (If you haven't, the questions won't be worth much.)

Nagging question #1:

Will teenage girls really relate to Emily? Or will they just want to be her? After all, she has what "family entertainment" says is a "perfect body," meaning she looks like she survives on a diet of fruit juice, and her hair and skin are always perfect. She has a full makeover, shiny and unsmudged even when she's in a damaged and weepy state. It's not bad to have a heroine that makes you aspire to be a better person, but Emily plays so perfectly into the Britney mold... super-skinny supermodel who gets the sexiest boy in town... I'd be worried that the film would throw fuel on the fire of any insecurity complexes.

And it's not just Emily... 

Nagging question #2: 

Will teenagers be able to relate to the picture-perfect world she lives in, or the neighborhood full of cute nice friendly children? 

Very few filmmakers are making movies that show they have an awareness of the realities kids face daily. For a far more honest picture of contemporary teen life, check out John Stockwell’s discomfortingly honest crazy/beautiful. For a perspective on the lives of kids who aren't "blessed" enough to live in a 90210 neighborhood, check out the recent George Washington.

Nagging Question #3:

Are these parents really so admirable? I liked Barondes's willingness to develop the characters of Emily's parents. While Emily seems smarter than them, they do have some believable, valid anxieties about parenthood. But I wondered if they would really let Emily talk back to them at the dinner table without some kind of disciplinary response. They certainly don't know much about her. And they let her run around town with a neighbor boy she's just met without a second thought. This seemed strange.

Nagging Question #4:

And what about poor Philip? Such a cool kid. Such a tragic hero. His unrequited love is treated rather comically, but I really felt for the kid. Emily's passions are treated seriously, but Philip's are not. That's because his passions would require a risk on the part of the storyteller if they were to be fulfilled, and his disappointment would be an emotional loose end that would have required even greater contrivance to tie up. 

On second thought, maybe Philip deserves better than Emily...someone with a unique personality, someone less predictable, someone whose standards for guys are higher than Gap-Boy. Now there's a story worth telling.

Jeffrey Overstreet 8/19/2002