Nancy Drew (2007)

Nancy Drew is a 2007 American mystery thriller film loosely based on the series of mystery novels about the titular teen detective of the same name by Edward Stratemeyer. It stars Emma Roberts as Nancy Drew, with Josh Flitter and Max Thieriot. Set in Los Angeles, it was directed by Andrew Fleming. The film was released in theaters on June 15, 2007, by Warner Bros. Pictures. Critical reactions were mixed, but the film grossed $30 million worldwide on a $20 million budget.

Plot
Nancy Drew, an amateur sleuth, and her widowed father, Carson Drew, move from their quaint hometown River Heights to California, where Carson has a temporary job. Carson encourages Nancy to focus on living like a normal teenager, instead of getting herself into trouble with crime- and mystery-solving. However, unbeknownst to Carson, Nancy chose their California house because of its famously unsolved mystery of the death of the movie star Dehlia Draycott. Nancy struggles to fit in at her new school, only befriending a younger boy, Corky. She wears 50's outfits and penny loafers, becoming subject to teasing from Corky's older sister and her best friend. After discovering many clues about the Draycott mystery, she begins secretly sleuthing behind her father's back. Nancy eventually finds Draycott's lost child, Jane Brighton, who turns out to be the sole beneficiary of Draycott's will, which has disappeared. Nancy contacts her father's business associate, Dashiel Biedermeyer, the lawyer of the Draycott estate, to assist her with the case.

Meanwhile, as an early birthday present, Ned Nickerson, Nancy's good friend with implied romantic interest, visits from River Heights. Corky becomes jealous of Nancy and Ned's close relationship and tries his best to get Nancy's attention. Nancy begins experiencing worsening attacks against her as she learns that someone does not want her to solve the case. One afternoon, a tearful Jane arrives on Nancy's doorstep and announces that her daughter has been taken away from her. While watching a Dehlia Draycott film, Nancy realizes that Draycott has hidden her will in a prop from one of her last movies. After retrieving the will, Nancy is kidnapped by the villain's henchmen. Nancy escapes with the will but gets into a car crash. Her father arrives and demands to know what is going on. After explaining her sleuthing, Biedermeyer offers them a ride home so he can finalize the legacy to Jane.

Nancy concludes that Biedermeyer was Dehlia Draycott's supposed love who stands to lose money if the will goes to Jane. However, when he questions Nancy about the will, she manages to jump out of the car. She is caught by Biedermeyer who threatens her; when Nancy asks him why he killed Dehlia, he replies that Dehlia went crazy after she put Jane up for adoption, and wanted to leave to be with her caretaker Leshing. Nancy escapes but is once again cornered. Leshing arrives and knocks the henchmen unconscious as Nancy reveals that she secretly recorded Biedermeyer's confession. While the police arrive to arrest Biedermeyer, Nancy reveals to Leshing that Jane is his daughter. The will is restored to Jane, who is able to get her daughter back and convert the Draycott mansion into a home for single mothers.

Back at River Heights, Nancy visits Ned as he repairs her car and they share a kiss. She receives a long-distance phone call regarding a new mystery in Scotland.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The acting (depending on your view) is very mediocre even from Emma Roberts and Kelly Vitz.
 * 2) Very demented plot.
 * 3) Some of the special effects look very cheesy, sub-par and cheap-looking, such as the scene where Nancy throws a mini-dynamite and explodes.
 * 4) The humor is just plain boring and unfunny.
 * 5) Blatant product placement such as: T-Mobile, AOL (AIM), MacBook, IMDb, AOL Jr., Google, Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, iTalk Recorder, iPod, and etc.
 * 6) The film is basically just mean-spirited to the main protagonist, Nancy.
 * 7) Plot hole:
 * 8) *How did Nancy learn how to drive a car?
 * 9) Some of the characters are either annoying or unlikable:
 * 10) *Inga Veinshtein and her friend Trish are just unlikable, mean-spirited, and stereotypical mean girls who judge, pick on people and judge their clothing. Though, they improved a bit in the movie.
 * 11) *Nancy herself, while likeable for the most part, is just an overly talkative, and way too straight-forward.
 * 12) *Corky (Nancy's friend), is just a complete immature pre-teen, though he's still likable.
 * 13) There are many, MANY, slow scenes in every scene which is just annoying.
 * 14) Some unfunny gross-out humor, such as the scene where Inga's friend (Trish) was choking, and when Nancy tries to save her by doing CPR.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Nancy, Corky, Ned and Nancy's father are tolerable characters, and have decent character development.
 * 2) *Even Trish and Inga also improved in the flim.
 * 3) Some funny moments here and there.
 * 4) At least, it's not as bad as the 2019 TV series.
 * 5) The plot, despite being demented and confusing is interesting and it's about the case of a unsolved mystery of the death of the movie star, Dehlia Draycott.
 * 6) Some of it still ties the book a little bit.
 * 7) Some heartwarming moments.
 * 8) The ending is still decent.
 * 9) The soundtrack despite being mediocre is decent.
 * 10) The movie can be considered a "so bad its good" movie.
 * 11) The first few minutes and the ending are good.

Critical Response
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 50%, with the site's consensuses reading, "Emma Roberts is bubbly and charming as Nancy Drew, the junior detective. But despite her best efforts, Nancy Drew still lacks excitement, surprise, and compelling secondary characters." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 53 out of 100, based on reviews from 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Sheri Linden of The Hollywood Reporter wrote: "The culture-clash procedural, which brings the small-town teen to big bad Hollywood, feels more perfunctory than inspired." Lael Loewenstein of Variety magazine, said the film "serves up stale mystery-movie cliches and overcooked red herrings in a thoroughly wooden adaptation" and "the cast is as stiff as the dialogue". Plugged In said that "the film has all of the oversimplifications of a teen mystery novel with a little—but not enough—humorous self-awareness tossed in to make the story satisfying for adults". On the other hand, it currently holds a 53% on Metacritic, 5.9/10 on IMDb, 3/5 on Common Sense Media, 49% on Rotten Tomatos.

Box office
Opening at #7 in the U.S. box office, the film grossed $6,832,318 on its opening weekend and has since grossed $25,612,520 in the US and $5,054,410 internationally for a total $30,666,930 worldwide.