Due to having two daughters who are obsessive followers of the historical American girl dolls, I've read all the books and watched all the movies. I thought that the Samantha and the Felicity movies were exceptionally well done - true to the books and meaningful in presenting the time they represented for children. The same cannot be said for the Molly movie. This depressing and disjointed movie had little in common with the books and did little to illustrate the time period represented. The writing was just terrible - it made Molly look like a snotty, whining brat, had random cultural things dropped in just for effect(the jitterbug contest on the village green?), and was slow as molasses. I was truly dumbfounded at the poor quality of this film after the other two. Less focus on Molly being miserable and the constant deaths and more focus on the bravery and efforts of those on the homefront and what they were doing to assist the war effort and make due with what they had would have helped. More explanation was needed for children to understand - why would there be a scrap metal drive, or socks and blankets knitted, or rationing? None of it was explained, just dropped in the scenes in passing. The saccharin ending rang very false(I'm not saying what). That being said, the character of Emily and how her story was addressed was, I thought excellent and well handled. The acting was fine, if lacking in passion, but that was the problem with the film and script in general.
