I love reading. During my early teenager years I tried to collect every Nancy Drew book written. Even at that point this was a challenge. There were just so many books. I would go to garage sales and find books from the 1950s and 1960s.

So I was excited to see Nancy Drew was a movie. I was disappointed to see adoption used as a plot device.

I had to explain several things to my 10-year-old daughter Natasha. Natasha understands her adoption story, but this movie brought up issues she had never thought about.

4/5 stars because I love Nancy. And it was a PG film. There were a couple of nice messages how to deal with being laughed at. And there was some reassurance that a teenager should be herself. She shouldn't worry about being the most fashionable.

Nancy promenades in, sporting penny loafers and knee socks, employing the capable form of Emma Roberts to make innocent teen curiosity decidedly cool.

The result is a refreshingly kind and calm PG film that no one will be ashamed to see.

From: Nancy Drew retains old-school charm

My issues with this movie center on "adoption as a plot device". Everyone's adoption story is different. But the movie used an adoption stereotype.

Nancy solved the mystery of Dehlia Draycott. Dehlia was a 1950s movie actress who mysteriously disappeared for 5 months. She reappeared and threw a party. And then her dead body was found.

The "5 months missing" made me go hmmmm. And sure enough, Dehlia was unmarried and pregnant. She went away to have a baby. And she placed the baby girl for adoption.

Nancy was able to track down the adopted child via some homemade treats (she really wasn't trying to bribe the clerk), some luck and a lot of leg work. She physically visited over 50 people to ask if they were adopted. She finally found Jane Brighton.

Jane had left home early because... Mom died when she was young and Dad took too personal an interest. Natasha did not catch the incest hint. It was there for "us adults". I would have preferred seeing the really old plot device of orphaning the child. The adoptive parents could have been killed off in a car accident.

At the very end of the movie Nancy reunited Jane with her birth father and solved Dehlia Draycott's murder. All ends well.

Here is an example of my conversation with Natasha after the movie.

NATASHA

(puzzled)
Why did that girl (Jane) get adopted? She didn't do anything wrong? It wasn't her fault.

ANGELA

The 1950s were different a different time. Single women felt like they couldn't parent their child. It is different now.

NATASHA

Mom you aren't married.

ANGELA

Yes

NATASHA

But why did she (Jane) have so many kids?

ANGELA

(The movie ends with Jane using some of the money from Dehlia's estate to open a "single mothers" home.)

They weren't Jane's kids. She opened her house to other single moms.

NATASHA

Why?

ANGELA

Because she wanted to help others.

I expect to have other conversations about this movie in the next week. But I will let Natasha guide the conversation. If I had known about the adoption theme I would have still gone. They trigger many good conversations on life and how to live it.

Thoughts on Adoption Movies

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