OxfordPress.com

Grade: B-

Verdict: A little clunky, but it means well.

Details: Starring Evan Rachel Wood and Vivica A. Fox. Directed by Blair Treu. Rated PG for a mildly frightening scene. At metro theaters. One hour, 47 minutes.

See it: Local theaters and showtimes for Little Secrets

Rate it: Write your own review

Review: It's the dump days of summer, the tail-end of the season, when Hollywood throws whatever it has sitting around onto the theater screen to see what sticks.

"Little Secrets" sticks pretty well, for what it is — a squeaky-clean coming-of-age tale with a simple story, a competent cast of mostly unknowns (aside from VivecaVivica A. Fox) and a good message. Actually, it's a wonder it made it into theaters at all given this summer's predilection for over-hyped and under-thought kid movies like "Scooby-Doo" or the "Spy Kids" sequel.

And know what makes "Little Secrets" stand out even more? There's not a fast-food tie-in in sight. Not even the possibility of one. Perhaps no one could figure out how to make violin-shaped burgers.

Set in a well-groomed upper-middle-class neighborhood that looks like it was imported from Atlanta (actually, it's Salt Lake City), "Little Secrets" wants us to know that keeping a secret can sometimes be a good thing, but it can be a bad thing, too. Fourteen-year-old Emily (pretty and talented Evan Rachel Wood, who, coincidentally, plays Al Pacino's daughter in "Simone," also opening today) is a gifted violinist, about to audition for a major youth orchestra. She should be concentrating on practicing for her violin teacher (Fox), but she's distracted by her mom's pregnancy. A cooing — screaming? — infant isn't Emily's idea of familial bliss.

Music is her calling, but Emily also has a thriving business called Secret Keeper. Working from a wooden booth that looks a lot like Lucy's famed 5-cents therapy/lemonade stand in "Peanuts," she dispenses advice and listens to confessions from the neighborhood kids. She's a big-sister problem solver who knows what to do about your dad's broken chess piece or the kitten you've smuggled into your bedroom even though your parents won't allow you to have one.

Well, she thinks she does, though, by the movie's end, some of her ideas have backfired. What we don't know is that Emily has a secret of her own, as do her parents and her teacher.

"Little Secrets" tosses around several public service announcement-style messages: don't drink and drive, especially if you're 15; don't decide a baby is necessarily a threat; don't break things or adopt things without telling your parents.

It also has that old-fashioned Disney-glaze that used to be on live-action family films starring Kurt Russell or the Olsen twins. There's nothing very real going on, from Emily's dubbed violin playing to her mother's close-your-eyes-and-count-to-10 birthing scene in which she pops out a baby in about a minute and a half. But the movie's feelings are real — whether they're a crush Emily's neighbor has on her, or the crush Emily has on her neighbor's older brother, or betraying a friend, or being a pain in the butt to your folks. Plus, you believe that Wood's Emily really does love music, even if she never moves her fingers along the violin strings.

Watching "Little Secrets" is like drinking a glass of milk after swearing off Sprite and vodka. It doesn't have much bite, but it's refreshing in its own way, and it's certainly good for you.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, (none)