GOLD DIGGERSTHE SECRET OF BEAR MOUNTAIN
GOLD DIGGERS
Directed by Kevin J. Dobson
Written by Barry Glasser
Starring: Christina Ricci, Anna Chlumsky, Polly Draper,
Brian Kerwin
Cinematography by Ross Berryman.
Universal Pictures/Rated PG for mild language and thematic elements,
including a child's exposure to domestic abuse.
Capsule Review
by Tom Keogh
Adolescent boys have often
been the subject of films, but young girls have seldom received similar
attention. Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain , the latest
addition to the small but growing collection of girl coming-of-age stories,
mixes the hackneyed formula of a boyhood-adventure story with the
sentimentality of an afterschool special.
Director Kevin Dobson lets the girls loose on some lush, gorgeous
Northwest scenery: rivers rush, forests hide a multitude of secrets, and
mountains gleam. The woods hold both promise and peril, not unlike
puberty. Against this backdrop unfolds the legend that Jody is intent to
live out. In the late nineteenth century, a Scottish orphan named Molly
Morgan crossed the Atlantic, then made her way across the United States
to Washington state, where she cut her hair to pass as a boy and worked
in the mines. Some say Molly died in a mining accident, but Jody chooses
to believe the legend that she was still living on Bear Mountain in the
1930s, having discovered a fortress of gold.
The girls set off in Jody's makeshift motor boat, treasure map in hand--
two modern-day Huck Finns in search of gold and adventure on the river.
It soon becomes clear that one goal of this adventure is escape.
Beth learns that Jody has set up a "condo" in a Bear Mountain cave, where
she hides when her mother's boyfriend becomes abusive. In the cave, Jody
feels free and independent, just like her heroine, Molly Morgan.
The story yields few surprises. Jody and Beth are consistently smarter,
wiser, faster, and, in the end, richer than the adults. Justice is
served all around, which quite satisfied the audience of preteen girls
at the screening I attended. "It was good!" said Monique and Lisa, two
ten-year-olds whom I met in line. They also agreed that the depictions of
domestic abuse were frightening, but they still thoroughly enjoyed the
film. "I wish I could be friends with them," added Lisa--and that is the
secret to the film's appeal. Ricci and Chlumsky give fine performances as
bright, energetic, and independent spirits, and my young friends clearly
envied their friendship--the kind that often seems to end when high school,
and more peer pressures, tend to begin.
Perfectly OK storybook
entertainment for kids over the age of seven or so (what do I know?).
The busy Christina Ricci (Now and Then) stars as a fatherless
girl who moves with her writer mom (Polly Draper) from L.A. to the
woodsy Pacific Northwest. There, the lass meets a lonely, abused tomboy
(My Girl's Anna Chlumsky) who has the inside scoop on a
legendary stash of gold hidden inside a semi-inaccessible mountain.
Written by Barry Glasser (Little Nemo) and directedy by Aussie
Kevin James Dobson (TNT's "Miracle In the Wilderness"), the film is about
as perfectly Saturday-matinee safe as kids' movies get these days, and
enjoyable to boot.
Gold Diggers is the story of thirteen-year-old Beth
(Christina Ricci), who also stars in Now and Then) and her recently
widowed mother (thirty something's (Polly Draper), who move from
L.A. to a small town in Washington. Beth, a city girl, asks, "Where's the
mall?" She finds country life dull, dull, dull. Then she meets fellow
outcast Jody (Anna Chlumsky), a tomboy who is the subject of many
whispers and little affection. Jody's a bad kid, everyone says, from a
bad family. But Beth sees beyond the gossip, to someone who can fill her
new life with adventure.