It’s so syrupy sweet, it’ll make your gums bleed and your brain cells cry out for mercy. Take all the notions, even the awe and respect, you developed about Nancy Drew in your growing years, put them in a blender with lots of ice and tons of rock sugar. That’s what you get in the movie.

The Nancy Drew in Carolyn Keene’s books was smart, intelligent, mature, dynamic, a little reserved and always observed more and talked less. In this movie, Nancy Drew is cute as a button, dresses in matching shades of plaid and penny loafers, is too perfect in everything she does, and is a social outcast because she is an insufferable know-it-all — an American version of Hermione, if you will.

The movie begins on this precocious note and doesn’t stop. Nancy Drew is famous for sleuthing and solving mysteries in her home town of River Heights and can’t get enough of mysteries. So when she has to move to California, she chooses a home with a mysterious history behind it. Soon she starts hearing noises in the night, and gets dragged further and further into the mystery of the reclusive actress who lived and died there. As things start heating up, Nancy must use all her sleuthing skills to solve the case and keep from being killed.
The script and screenplay by Tiffany Paulsen and Andrew Fleming retain some of the original thrill of the Keene storylines, especially the action and the developing mystery. However, Fleming — also the director — tends to get cheesy in the emotional bits. The ominous soundtrack we could have done without, and although using songs here and there was a neat trick, it gets too mushy at the end. You can’t help but think that Keene would never have let the story go from ripe to rotten.

The highpoints of the movie are the acting talents of Emma Roberts and Josh Flitter. Roberts (niece to Julia) is a diamond in the rough. No one could have pulled off the neurotic, bordering-on-weird character better than she could have.

Flitter, on the other hand, ranges from adorable to downright hilarious. The boy has got a natural talent for comedy and must stick to it. Tate Donovan does nothing different from his role in The OC. Warning! Don’t expect a Bess or George here, they’re conveniently missing in action.

If you’ve grown up reading Nancy Drew, you’ll find this movie maddeningly childish. But if you’ve just discovered Keene’s classic girl sleuth, watch this movie for sure.