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Harriet the Spy is a 1996 American coming-of-age comedy film directed by Bronwen Hughes in her feature film directorial debut, and starring Michelle Trachtenberg in her major film acting debut. It co-stars Rosie O'Donnell, J. Smith-Cameron, Gregory Smith, and Vanessa Lee Chester. Based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Louise Fitzhugh, the film follows a sixth-grade student who aspires to become a writer and spy.

Harriet the Spy
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Bronwen Hughes
Screenplay by	Douglas Petrie Theresa Rebeck
Adaptation by	Greg Taylor Julie Talen
Based on	Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Produced by	Marykay Powell Nava Levin
Starring	Michelle Trachtenberg Rosie O'Donnell
Cinematography	Francis Kenny
Edited by	Debra Chiate
Music by	Jamshied Sharifi
Production companies	Nickelodeon Movies Rastar
Distributed by	Paramount Pictures
Release date	July 10, 1996 (1996-07-10)[1]
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$12 million
Box office	$26.6 million

Filming began in the fall of 1994 in Toronto and was completed by the end of 1995. Produced by Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies and Rastar, it was the first film produced under the Nickelodeon Movies banner and the first of two film adaptations of the Harriet the Spy books. In theaters, the pilot episode of Hey Arnold! called Arnold was shown before the film.

The film was released in theaters on July 10, 1996. It made $26.6 million worldwide on a production budget of $12 million.[2] The film was released on home video on February 25, 1997, with an orange clamshell packaging.

Plot

Eleven-year-old sixth grader Harriet M. Welsch, an aspiring spy and writer, lives a privileged life in New York City with her parents, Violetta and Ben, and her nanny, Katherine "Ole Golly", the only person who knows all that Harriet has been snooping on. Harriet and her best friends Simon "Sport" Rocque and Janie Gibbs are enemies with an elitist rich girl named Marion Hawthorne, currently the class president and editor of the sixth-grade newspaper, The Guidepost.

One night while alone with Harriet, whose parents are out of the house for the night, Golly invites a friend, George Waldenstein, over for dinner. After Golly accidentally burns the bratwurst, the three go out to dinner and a movie instead. When the three return home late in the evening, Violetta, enraged at Golly for letting Harriet stay out past her curfew, initially fires her, but quickly regrets this and begs for Golly to stay. However, Golly concedes that Harriet should be on her own, and shortly before departing, she encourages Harriet to never give up on her love for observing people, and promises her that she will be the first to buy her own autographed copy of Harriet's first novel. After bidding Golly goodbye, Harriet becomes depressed and withdrawn. While spying on people in various areas of the city, Harriet breaks into the mansion of Agatha Plummer, and gets caught hiding in her dumbwaiter.

After school the next day, following a game of bumper tag, Marion discovers Harriet's private notebook and begins vindictively reading all of Harriet's comments about her friends aloud in a sensationalizing manner, such as how she suspects Janie will "grow up to be... a total nutcase", and teasing Sport's father for barely earning any money. This results in Sport and Janie turning their backs on Harriet. Harriet's classmates subsequently create a Spy-Catcher club and torment Harriet on her spy routes.

When Harriet begins avoiding her homework assignments, her parents take away her notebooks and request that her teacher, Miss Elson, search Harriet each day at school for notebooks, embarrassing Harriet. One day, during art class, Marion and her friends intentionally pour blue paint on Harriet, who slaps Marion in the face and flees the school. Harriet exacts revenge against her classmates, including exposing that Marion's father left her family to be with his secretary because he never loved her, cutting off a chunk of Laura's hair, sabotaging one of Janie's science experiments (triggering an angry response from Janie's parents), and humiliating Sport with a picture of him in a maid outfit. Harriet's revenge plans enrage her classmates, further alienating her.

Harriet's parents discover her actions towards her classmates and send her to be evaluated by a psychologist, who assures them that Harriet is fine. Then things start to get better again. Harriet gets her notebook back, as well as a surprise visit from Golly, who tells her that in order to make things right again, she must do two things, both of which she will not like: apologize and lie. When Harriet tells her that it is not worth it, Golly disagrees, and tells Harriet that she is worth it as an individual, and her individuality will make others nervous (and keep making them feel as such), before finally adding, "Good friends are one of life's blessings. Don't give them up without a fight."

Harriet then tries to apologize to Sport and Janie, though they initially reject her (they later, however, have finally come to their senses and consequently quit Marion's bully group due to being treated unfairly, much to Marion's dismay). Harriet also opines to Miss Elson and the class that Marion's appointment as editor of the sixth grade paper was done unfairly, to which Miss Elson agrees, and opens it up for a vote. Harriet's classmates vote her in as editor, replacing Marion. Through one article, she apologizes to the class, all of whom (except Marion) accept her apology. On opening night of the 6th grade pageant, Janie, Sport, and Harriet light off a stink bomb as revenge on Marion and dance to James Brown's "Get Up Offa That Thing".

Cast

• Michelle Trachtenberg as Harriet M. Welsch
• Rosie O'Donnell as Catherine "Ole Golly"
• Gregory Smith as Simon "Sport" Rocque
• Vanessa Lee Chester as Janie Gibbs
• J. Smith-Cameron as Violetta Welsch
• Robert Joy as Ben Welsch
• Eartha Kitt as Agatha K. Plummer
• Charlotte Sullivan as Marion Hawthorne
• Teisha Kim as Rachel Hennessy
• Cecilley Carroll as Beth Ellen Hansen
• Dov Tiefenbach as Boy with Purple Socks
• Nina Shock as Carrie Andrews
• Connor Devitt as Pinky Whitehead
• Alisha Morrison as Laura Peters
• Nancy Beatty as Miss Elson
• James Gilfillan as Archie Simmons
• Gerry Quigley as Sport's Dad
• Jackie Richardson as Janie's Mother
• Roger Clown as Dr. Wagner
• Sally Cahill as Maid

Production

Screenplay

The screenplay was adapted from Louise Fitzhugh's 1964 novel of the same name.[3] Director Bronwen Hughes commented on the adaptation: "Certain things about the '60s story, especially the relationship between kids and their parents, had to be adjusted to make sense because you don't have that same kind of formality that you had in the book in the '60s between parents and kids. So those things needed to be made more natural for the 1990s kids audience. But it was very important to me that the things that really affected Harriet in the book would be the things that really affected Harriet in the movie."[3] The result mixed elements from various decades, but Hughes aspired to create a "timeless" film that featured little technology.[3]

Filming

Harriet the Spy was filmed in Toronto during the fall of 1994 and winter of 1995.[4] Director Bronwen Hughes recalled: "It was Paramount's financial decision to make Toronto look like New York, although to tell you the truth, nothing looks like a row of brownstones and stoops like New York, so we just started choosing great locations to create a visual experience."[4]

Michelle Trachtenberg recalled the shoot beginning on October 11, 1994, her ninth birthday.[3] She and co-star Vanessa Lee Chester had known each other prior, having filmed a commercial together in New York City when they were five years old.[3] Charlotte Sullivan recalled of the shoot: "When [Bronwen] would direct us, if we were walking she's like, 'Okay, you'll go bop-bop this way then bop-bop this way', she was always dancing. I don't remember her not dancing on set. And music was always playing. It was very cool and in terms of performance art she was pretty ahead of her time. It was a great way also to direct children. It was a way to keep things alive."[3]

Release

Box office

The film was released in U.S. theaters on July 10, 1996, and the film grossed $6,601,651 on its opening weekend, averaging about $3,615 per each of the 1,826 screens it was shown on.[2] The film went on to gross a total of $26,570,048 by November 10, 1996, and is considered a modest box office success, earning back more than double its $12 million budget.

Home media

Harriet the Spy was released on VHS by Paramount Home Video on February 25, 1997. The cassette also contained two Rugrats music videos, and customers were able to receive $5 rebate if they bought the movie in an orange clamshell case plus two eligible Rugrats videos.

The film was later released on DVD on May 27, 2003.

Reception

Critical response

The film received mixed reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an approval rating of 48% based on reviews from 31 critics. The site's consensus: "Harriet the Spy is a rapid-fire mystery movie that doesn't have much to offer beyond the two decent lead performances."[5] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave it a grade B+.[6]

Rita Kempley of The Washington Post was critical of the film, deeming it a "tedious" adaptation of the source novel, adding: "Harriet the Spy isn't really a story, but a dark slice of this ruminative child's inner life. Like the more clearly comic Welcome to the Dollhouse, this film finds more wrong than wonder in these terrible, tenderfoot years."[7] Roger Ebert praised the performance of Trachtenberg, but conceded: "It is not a very technically accomplished movie--the pacing is slow and there are scenes that seem amateurish--but since Harriet doesn't intend to inspire anyone to become a movie critic, perhaps it will work a certain charm for its target audience."[8] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly, a self-proclaimed fan of the novel, wrote that the film "has its sticky, Afterschool Special side (the ending is way too pat), but at its best it’s like a Welcome to the Dollhouse for preadolescents. What Fitzhugh’s book had, and what the movie gets, is the glee and neurotic terror of a kid lurching into adult consciousness, learning just how dangerous that notebook we all carry around in our heads really is."[9]

John Anderson of the Los Angeles Times also commented on the film's darker elements, writing that it is "fun, yes, but [it] isn't afraid to expose the nastiness of youth or the offhanded cruelty of one girl's ego. This is not a happy little movie about the sweetness of childhood."[10] Barbara Shulgasser of The San Francisco Examiner dismissed the film, describing the protagonist as "the kind of kid I'm not looking forward to meeting as a grownup...  While the well-loved novel was apparently about the admirable battle a kid must wage in order to become an artist in the face of peer disapproval, the movie seems to be about a mean-spirited tyke who has no scruples. If that kind of person wants to become an artist, it's OK by me, but I don't have to root for her."[11]

Accolades

Year	Award	Category	Recipients	Result	Ref.
1997	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite Movie Actress	Rosie O'Donnell	Won	[12]
	Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a Feature Film – Leading Young Actress	Michelle Trachtenberg	Won	[13]
		Best Performance in a Feature Film – Supporting Young Actress	Vanessa Lee Chester	Won
		Best Family Feature – Drama	Harriet the Spy	Nominated
		Best Performance in a Feature Film – Supporting Young Actor	Gregory Smith	Nominated

Remake

Another adaptation of Harriet the Spy was released as a television movie in 2010 entitled Harriet the Spy: Blog Wars, with Jennifer Stone in the title role.

References

External links

• Harriet the Spy at IMDb
• Harriet the Spy at AllMovie
• Harriet the Spy at Box Office Mojo
• Harriet the Spy at Rotten Tomatoes

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