by Mark Murton

Starring: Comet Lookinland

Directed by: Blair Treu

Cat Out of the Bag Alert! This review contains some spoilers for this film!

Synopsis: In this family film 14-year-old Emily Lindstrom (Evan Rachel Wood) is an aspiring concert violinist who is spending the summer practising for a big audition while her girlfriends are at camp. She also has a thriving neighbourhood business: charging 50 cents to keep the secrets of the local children while also offering sage advice. But eventually, the weight of Emily’s secrets — the ones she’s keeping for others and especially those of her own — bring her life temporarily crashing down.

Cat Burglars (Scene Stealers): One of Emily’s regular secret sellers is young Lea (Danielle Chuchran) who is obsessed with cats (as shown by the decor in her bedroom) and desperate to have one, but isn’t allowed due to her sister being allergic.

We first meet her during the opening sequence, smuggling a white kitten she calls “Dixie” into her room via her back pack.

Emily’s advice to Lea includes getting some kitty litter. We later see Lea’s bike parked against a wall with a bag of Cat Litter in the basket on the handlebars.

The camera pans across to a woman (Clara Susan Morey II) sitting with a wicker basket containing three kittens, which she and Lea are petting. After a quick conversation the woman hands Lea the tortoiseshell kitten.

At her next session Lea excitedly tells Emily, “Dixie’s got a sister — Noreen.” When Emily queries if she’s sure it’s a girl because if not Dixie might end up pregnant Lea happily declares, “That would be a dream come true!”

Later, Lea is stalking a black cat as it relaxes on the grass near some trees.

Lea suddenly leaps out and thrusts a net over the surprised (not to say terrified) cat as it desperately tries to get away (falling awkwardly as it does so). The actress is trying to be careful but the cat actor was clearly not ready for this action. When Lea proudly tells Emily how she “got another one,” Emily exclaims, “You kidnapped Midnight?!” Unrepentant, Lea replies “Midnight is so ordinary, I’m naming here Letitia.” Pointing out that Midnight’s owners have signs up all over the neighbourhood Emily insists, “You have to give her back,” but Lea indicates she has no intention of doing so, even when Emily says that she can no longer allow her to be a client if she doesn’t return the pilfered pussycat.

Midnight is the last cat to appear on screen (although another one is heard off screen when Lea is seen out and about with her net again), but at the end of the film we learn that Emily has agreed to take care of Dixie, and a neighbour will do the same for Noreen, with Lea making regular visits to help. Despite only appearing briefly in one scene Midnight does get a mention in the credits (perhaps by way of an apology) where we learn Midnight the Cat was played by Comet Lookinland.

Final Mewsings: It’s no secret that cat lovers will do anything to have a kitty!

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