`Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain" may not have been
adapted from an old Nancy Drew mystery, but that's how it plays, with
a touch of the Hardy Boys. Even the title seems inspired by those old
Grossett & Dunlap books that glued me to the couch on rainy
Saturdays. Writing about them now, I can remember the illustrations,
which invariably showed a couple of wide-eyed kids holding a
flashlight that illuminated, in its powerful beam, a savage bear, a
cornered bank robber or a treasure chest.
The young heroes of "Gold Diggers" are Beth (Christina
Ricci), who has just arrived in town with her mother, and Jody (Anna
Chlumsky), a tomboy who quickly becomes her best friend. (So strong
is the memory of the language of those old books that I almost wrote
"chum" instead of "friend.") These girls, both in budding
adolescence, are more modern than Nancy Drew, however. Beth, a city
girl, is none too happy to live in a small town ("Where's the mall?"
she asks, before discovering that the TV set can only pick up two
channels.) Jody is a reader as well as a tomboy, and after beating up
a local bully and scaring Beth by telling her a lizard is crawling up
her leg, she shares her favorite book: Bear Mountain and the Legend
of Molly Morgan.
The legend has it that a treasure in gold was hidden in a
cave inside Bear Mountain by Molly Morgan, a pioneer woman from Gold
Rush days. Jody believes the girls should spend their summer looking
for it, and Beth goes along with that notion. Soon they're exploring
the local waterways and approaching Bear Mountain in an old boat that
Jody has managed to possess and repair, in the tradition of the Hardy
Boys and their motorcycles.
The movie slips back and forth between teenage adventure
nostalgia and modern touches. Consider, for example, that both girls
come from households without fathers. Beth's mom (Polly Draper) wants
them to try living in the little town where she grew up and has
inherited an aunt's house. Jody's mom (Diana Scarwid) has a boyfriend
(David Keith) who seems like a really nice guy, but gets drunk, beats
her up, and eventually kidnaps Jody in a bid to find the gold. You
know times they are a-changin' when the MPAA's warning on a PG-rated
movie includes the words "for mild language and thematic elements,
including a child's exposure to domestic abuse."
Luckily, there is a stalwart local sheriff (Brian Kerwin),
who knew Beth's mother when they were kids together, and who believes
Beth when she says they must leave for Bear Mountain immediately
because the bad guy no doubt has Jody tied up inside and is digging
for the gold. This leads to a land-air-water rescue mission with
helicopters, frogmen, inflatable rafts and, of course, lots and lots
of flashlights, in whose powerful beams we see treasure chests, etc.,
not to mention a woman who is probably not the ghost of Molly Morgan,
although it is otherwise hard to account for her presence on the
scene.
The picture depends on Christina Ricci and Anna Chlumsky for
its appeal, and they make it genuinely appealing. Chlumsky in
particular has been a favorite of mine since "My Girl" (1991), and
she is growing up into a likable, all-American girl. Ricci is fixed
in my mind as the very peculiar little girl in "The Addams Family,"
but I pushed those associations aside and enjoyed this more wholesome
performance.
The movie itself is not a great work. Neither were the Hardy
Boys books, although for several years their author, Franklin W.
Dixon, was my favorite writer, ranking just above Mark Twain, who was
almost as good. I have a rule that I never, or rarely, write things
like "not my cup of tea, but sure to be enjoyed by young girls." I am
going to break that rule, because foolish consistency, as we know, is
the hobgoblin of little minds.
"Gold Diggers" is not my cup of tea, but it is sure to be
enjoyed by younger audiences, and although I don't think it will hold
the attention of adults, I do not require adults and children to be
alike in all things.
After all, I can no longer jump into the air and click my heels
together three times before coming back down again. That was the
favorite trick of Buddy, the hero of all the Buddy books, also
created by that fertile genius, Franklin W. Dixon. The fact is, I
never could click my heels together three times, but it says
something for Mr. Dixon that I spent a lot of time trying.
