Nancy Drew, journaliste-détective

Maggie Lawson has all the necessary All-American Girl looks to play the feisty teen-aged sleuth and she's okay in a fast-talking way to be convincing as an investigative detective. But unfortunately, the plot gets bogged down in a lot of petty sorority doings without a hint of mystery showing up until later on--and by that time you don't care.

The Nancy Drew of old is not here--instead we have a brassy, overbearing heroine with a rich girl background and her equally obnoxious teen-age girlfriends all given the latest slang expressions and one-liners in a script that's determined to update the famous series if not improve it. None of the happenings have the sort of mysterious quality called for in the Carolyn Keene mysteries.

Another bad case of "updating" in an attempt to modernize the old-fashioned charm of the original. It rings false from beginning to end.

It is arguably the most controversial version of Nancy Drew by fans and critics alike. And why? The actors are all excellent, the problem is not there. While watching the film, the viewer actually feels like a feeling of unease, and it comes quite simply from the fact that screenwriters and director have constantly hesitated between making a film for "midinette" and a real detective film. Everything is there actually ...

I love Maggie Lawson on "Psych," and I love Nancy Drew, so I was interested to see this 2002 "Nancy Drew." My experiences with Nancy in the past include the books, of course, Bonita Granville in the films, and the Pamela Sue Martin TV series, which I don't remember at all.

In this incarnation, Nancy is in college with Bess and George. As a journalism major working on the school paper, she becomes interested in a football player who becomes comatose from taking ephedrine, and it's suspected that his girlfriend, a medical student, gave him the drug. Nancy sets out to find the truth.

Lawson is pretty, flirtatious, confident, and spunky. Is she Nancy from the books? No, and I wonder if today it's possible to even capture her. The times are different, for one thing. Unlike some other book characters, Nancy Drew was never considered a good character for the movies, which is why the character created by Bonita Granville was so different. The book Nancy was pretty, serious-minded, intelligent, courageous, wore "frocks" and went to "luncheon" with Bess and George. Granville was hyperkinetic and constantly dragging Ted (not Ned, the studio changed his name) into dangerous situations. She was always in trouble. There was no Bess and George.

Reading over the reviews on this site, it's interesting that some people have no familiarity with the films or the TV show. There was a complaint that Nancy is not a strawberry blonde here. At least she's blonde - she's been brunette in other incarnations. Someone else wrote that she must have had a million dollar bank account for a car like that. Nancy was always well-to-do - she never worked and she always had her own car. Someone else mentioned Nancy driving like a maniac. That undoubtedly comes from the Bonita Granville movies, which depicted Nancy as a reckless driver.

The Nancy character from this "Nancy Drew" is updated more from the films than the books, but it keeps all of the book characters, and they all use their book names.

Bottom line - if Nancy wasn't well-adapted from the 1930s books to 1930s films, there's no chance she's going to be well-adapted from the 1930s books to 21st century films or TV movies. As a regular story that has little relation to Nancy Drew, it's pleasant enough. Scarlett O'Hara, Mrs. Dewinter in Rebecca, Madame Bovary, Anna Karenina, etc. - none of these ever had to be updated; they were done in the period in which they were written. When a 2002 script doesn't even adapt an actual Nancy Drew story from one of the books, the task of creating a modern Nancy becomes impossible.

Nancy Drew (Maggie Lawson) starts college with best friends Bess Marvin and George Fayne. She has garnered some fame from her sleuthing in River Heights High. Duke Shifflin is her journalism professor. Hank Luckman is bumbling student. Bess wants to pledge a sorority and Nancy goes in support. Christina 'Teeny' Timkins is the bossy girl who has to pledge her mother's sorority. Allison Price is Tri-Pi president. Her boyfriend star linebacker Jesse goes into a coma rumored to be drugs and Nancy Drew senses a mystery.

I am not a big fan of Nancy Drew. I have never read any of the books. I don't know any Nancy Drew story. The TV Nancy Drew with edge for me is Veronica Mars. Nancy is new to college and it would be better for her to start out alone. While Bess and George are a part of her series, nothing is more TV than having a bunch of kids go from high school to college together. That's not a good thing. I rather have the teen Nancy Drew in high school. This is starting a teen soap in year five and that's usually a rough spot on the decline for almost every one of these shows. This is never going to work as a pilot.

As feminist role model for young women, Nancy Drew can't be beat. She's eternally popular whether it's Bonita Granville in the Thirties, Pamela Sue Martin in the Seventies and now Maggie Lawson for the new millenia. Maggie is a worthy addition to her predecessors.

Nancy competes with men at their own game and shows them up quite frequently. She's intelligent, pretty, resourceful, who wouldn't want a girl like her or be threatened by her if the male ego wasn't too secure. Brett Cullen is her infinitely patient father Carson Drew who while he keeps cautioning her, really admires how his daughter has turned out.

Nancy's a little older now, she's in college as a journalism major, this generation's Nancy has grown up with tales of the exploits of Woodward and Bernstein and for one who's got a terminal case of snoopiness, this is the field for her.

When a star halfback on the school's football team has a stroke at the ripe old age of 20, her curiosity is more than piqued. She's got quite a scoop when it turns out he's been taking performance enhancing steroids. But is it illegal and if so, where does the blame lie?

Sabine Singh turns in a nice performance as the halfback's girl friend and Nick Stabile is around as Nancy's ever dependable friend Ned Nickerson. In keeping with the updating of these stories, Ned's a computer geek now and his expertise in hacking, helps Nancy get her story and nearly lands her in jail.

This version of Nancy Drew is nothing great, but it's every bit as good as the B picture product Warner Brothers did back in the day. And Nancy is still the best investigator around.