A bit of an outsider struggling to fit into her new surroundings, Nancy and her pals set out to solve a mystery, make new friends, and establish their place in the community.
“Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase” plays out like a Saturday morning kids movie complete with a moral tale about what it takes to be a good person and helping others. It reminded me of many TV shows I watched as a kid, shows like “Silver Spoons,” “Diff’rent Strokes,” and “Family Ties,” entertaining programs that, without fail, had a moral in each and every episode. Sometimes, the show’s messages were so “in your face,” even as a kid, I couldn’t help but roll my eyes, feeling like I just got smashed over the head with the moral hammer! While “Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase” comes awfully close to achieving this, thankfully, because of its deft direction and appealing cast, it doesn’t feel like a wallop to your noggin, more like a simple brush over it, reminding you that it doesn’t take much to be a good person, even to your worst enemy.
After the death of her mother, Nancy Drew (Sophia Lillis) and her father Carson (Sam Trammell), move away from the hustle and bustle of Chicago to the small town of River Heights. Carson is the town’s only attorney while Nancy attends high school with her best friends George (Zoe Renee) and Bess (Mackenzie Graham). After the school bully, Derek Barnes (Evan Castelloe), makes funs of and embarrasses Bess on video and posts it on social media, Nancy swears payback. While Derek is working out at the gym, Nancy disguises herself and sneaks into the men’s locker room and changes the showerheads to ones filled with blue dye, naturally covering Derek after his workout. While Nancy, George, and Bess record the whole incident and post it on social media for the whole world to see, as a result, Nancy is sentenced to community service for her prank. While working one Saturday, she overhears a conversation between Sheriff Marchbanks (Jay DeVon Johnson) and Flora (Linda Lavin), an elderly woman who lives in town alone. She states that her house is haunted and that strange things are occurring at home but the sheriff shrugs her off, stating he has more important things to do. Nancy approaches her and offers to help and immediately she and Flora hit it off, much to the annoyance of Flora’s niece, Helen (Laura Wiggins), Nancy’s arch-rival and the girlfriend of school bully Derek Barnes.
Flora informs Nancy that the house she lives in suffers from rolling blackouts that only occur at night and that she has seen strange figures around the house. Nancy agrees to stay the night with Flora and Helen and while intrigued at the thought of staying in a haunted house appeals to her, that night, just like Flora stated, the house comes to life with cabinets and drawers opening and closing by themselves and candles mysteriously floating in the air. After a ghostly figure appears and threatens Nancy to stop her investigation, she blacks out. The next morning, all three women wake up suffering from headaches and upon further inspection of the house during daylight hours, they uncover a mysterious staircase behind a cabinet that leads to a secret basement. There, they discover the behind-the-scenes workings of the ghostly phenomenon throughout the house, drawers rigged to open utilizing broom handles and a strange canister filled with Myristicin attached to the A/C unit, a compound that in large doses, can cause hallucinations. When Nancy’s father goes missing and is tied to the fact that he was against a new expensive railroad coming through town, one which would have run directly through Flora’s home, Nancy and her friends set out to find him and connect the purported haunting of Floras’ house to her father’s disappearance.
The movie plays out like a feature-length episode of “Scooby-Doo” and while I enjoyed that show growing up, the film never introduces any real sense of danger. There are a few moments when our protagonists have run-ins with unsavory characters and while danger is most certainly hinted at, we just know that it will never come to fruition, an aspect that worked well back in the ’70s and ’80s but doesn’t necessarily sit well with today’s younger audiences. Growing up with more mature themes and situations, youngsters today are more sophisticated than we were at the same age so if the filmmakers decide to produce another Nancy Drew movie, it might be worth taking this into consideration. Sophia Lillis as our titular heroine is likable and appealing and I love that the producers didn’t turn her into a prudish goody-two-shoes, instead, she is not afraid to go after what she feels is right, even if it means breaking the law. Ms. Lillis was one of the best elements of Andy Muschietti’s “IT” and here proves that she is just as incredible in a children’s story as she is in an adult horror film. She exudes confidence, defiance, fearlessness, but at the same time, loyalty and affection for those near and dear to her. She is a star in the making and I cannot wait to see what she delivers next.
Now available on Digital HD and on Blu-ray™ Combo Pack & DVD April 2nd
