PREMIERE.COM'S REVIEW (posted 6/15/07)

Primly dressed in her penny loafers with a spy kit at her hip, Nancy Drew (Roberts) is an unstoppable crime-solving force in her hometown of River Heights. The teenaged gumshoe is the protagonist of more than a dozen beloved young adult mystery novels, but in co-writer-director Fleming's 21st Century update, the charm seems to get lost somewhere along the way.

When Nancy's father (Donovan) heads to Los Angeles for work, he drags culture-shocked Nancy along and makes her promise to give up her sleuthing ways. The promise proves too difficult to keep when the two move into an abandoned estate that was once occupied by actress Dehlia Draycott (Harring), who was found dead in her pool at a party almost 25 years ago. The house comes complete with hidden passageways and creaking stairs and a "strange caretaker" (Bell), who is actually rather placid. With the help of her newfound sidekick Corky (Flitter), and her lovelorn "friend" Ned (Thieriot), Nancy determines to solve the case, hopefully without her father's knowledge.

It's a simple story, easy enough to follow, but the plot — and the mystery — quickly becomes terribly predictable as clues start falling into Nancy's lap. She doesn't have to work to solve the case because eventually someone will shine a spotlight on some palm trees or Ned will mention that his closet is only six inches deep. And the predictability of the plot might be overlooked, but Roberts and company seem to put little effort into making their characters interesting, spouting bits of dialogue with little concern for what they're actually saying.

At the end of the movie, the only mystery left unsolved is where your time and money have gone. Maybe one of the tools in Nancy's spy kit can be of service.

— Chris Willard