CineBad!!!

This movie was actually pretty good. I mean, Natty (Salenger) is a butt-kickin’ young lady who has a way with animals. She is independent, and doesn’t take crap from anyone, yet she’s kind-hearted; loving animals, her dad, and Harry (Cusack) a fellow traveler. However, despite all of this, Disney still works its cheesy heartstring-pulling magic into this film. There are a couple of cute dogs for natty to commune with, and the very Disneyesque quest of a girl trying overcoming adversity to reunite with her father. Ah, family values.

The cheesiness lies simply in the Disney predictability of it all, and the gratuitous use of animals for cuteness value. It starts in during the Depression. Natty Gann is a 13-year old tomboy who lives with her unemployed father in a boarding house in a neighborhood where people live in the sort of noble, romantically grimy poverty that only Disney can portray. Why does Natty dress like a boy? Doe she have issues with her gender identity? We never gain insight into her soul. We only know that she can fight like a boy, swear like a boy (but this being a Disney flick, we only hear the “S” word and the “G-D” phrase a couple of times), and generally be a little feminist without uttering a single slogan or giving a single speech.

Natty’s father leaves her in the care of Connie (Lainie Kazan), the loud-mouthed greedy Stereotypically Disney-mean owner of the boarding house, while he takes a job as a logger in Washington State. Naturally, there’s a locket involved. People are always leaving kids lockets with pictures of their now-dead selves inside, so they’ll have something to gaze at longingly when the plot loses steam. With her new locket and her puppy, Natty ties bed sheets together and escapes from the room where Connie has locked her. She inexplicably ties her puppy up in a barn, hops a boxcar, and embarks upon a journey of self-discovery.

Along the way, Natty befriends Harry, (Cusack,) a fellow boxcar jumper with dreams of finding work in California. She also tames a vicious wolf who has been mistreated at the hands of cruel owners. She also encounters suspicious farmers, a disfigured blacksmith who loves animals, and does time in an Oliver-esque orphanage.

All in all, The acting is really good, Meredith Salenger is rally good, and who can resist John Cusack? And this was the sort of feel-good family picture that I like. Its cheesiness works to its advantage in this case. It was the kind of movie that made me want to start a new vocation. Forget typing and answering phones! I want to hop boxcars for a living!