Nancy Drew

Nancy Drew accompanies her father, lawyer Carson Drew, to Los Angeles, where he has taken temporary work. Rather than a simple change of scene, the trip draws the teenage amateur sleuth into an old case: the death of film star Dehlia Draycott, which was never solved. The house the Drews rent once belonged to the actress, and Nancy, despite having promised to give up investigating, begins looking into what happened there decades earlier.

The film is based on Carolyn Keene's long-running series of books about the young detective, and it places its heroine, complete with magnifying glass and fingerprint powder, in a Hollywood world of phones, cliques and teenage social pressures that contrast with her own methodical habits. Andrew Fleming directed and co-wrote the screenplay with Tiffany Paulsen, and Jerry Weintraub produced. It was Fleming's sixth feature, following Dick in 1999 and preceding Barefoot in 2014. Emma Roberts plays Nancy, with Max Thieriot as Ned Nickerson, Josh Flitter as Corky Veinshtein, Rachael Leigh Cook as Jane Brighton, Kay Panabaker as Georgie and Tate Donovan as Carson Drew. Thirty-two cast members and forty-nine crew are credited.

Made for about 20 million dollars, the film took roughly 31 million dollars worldwide, a modest return on its production cost. On IMDb it holds 5.9 out of 10 from about 22,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1 out of 10 from around 564 votes, indicating a middling audience response. A critics' rating of 5.6 out of 10 from 135 reviews places professional opinion close to the audience scores.