Nancy Drew

Emma Roberts steps into the sensible shoes of teen detective Nancy Drew for the latest movie inspired by the vintage children’s books. In a new story, our high-achieving heroine attends a school in LA – a far cry from home town River Heights, despite sharing its unusually high crime rate. As two slightly bitchy girls take an interest in Nancy, it looks like this could be swerving into ‘Mean Girls’ territory, but no. This is an old-fashioned mystery story, so Nancy must investigate the suspicious death of a starlet, in whose rambling mansion she and father Carson Drew are now living. This is quite dull. The case is decades old, and Nancy just seems to stumble upon clues rather than dig them out like her tenacious literary version. Roberts is acceptable in the lead role, and Josh Flitter puts in a relatively amusing turn as her new sidekick, Corky (clearly some comedy was required here, although it’s not enough). But this ‘Nancy Drew’ still has a televisual feel – more ‘Murder, She Wrote’ than junior ‘Marple’.