Harriet the Spy

Harriet M. Welsch is an eleven-year-old girl with a clear sense of what she wants to be. Encouraged by her nanny, Ole Golly, she fills a private notebook with observations about everyone around her, treating her classmates, friends and family as subjects to be studied. The arrangement works until the notebook falls into the wrong hands, and the people she has written about read what she really thinks of them. Their reaction leaves Harriet isolated, and she sets out to strike back at those she feels have wronged her.

Bronwen Hughes directed the film, her first feature, ahead of Forces of Nature and Stander. Theresa Rebeck and Douglas Petrie wrote the screenplay, and Marykay Powell produced it for Paramount and Nickelodeon Movies. Michelle Trachtenberg plays Harriet, with Gregory Smith as Sport, Vanessa Lee Chester as Janie, Rosie O'Donnell as Ole Golly, and J. Smith-Cameron and Robert Joy as her parents. The credited cast runs to 34 performers.

Made for about 12 million dollars and released in July 1996, the film took roughly 27 million dollars worldwide, a solid return on its budget. On IMDb it holds 6 out of 10 from around 12,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.1 out of 10 from a much smaller pool of about 200. A critics' rating of 5.8 out of 10 from 30 reviews places it close to the audience scores.