Harriet may only be in the sixth grade, but she's already found her calling: to be a spy. Carefully taking notes in her private notebook, Harriet makes clever and cruel observations about her subjects, including her best friends. But when Harriet's friends find her secret notebook the tables are turned on her...
...in busily updating the '60s story for the more worldly '90s, the filmmakers have ended up, ironically, with a product much more naively juvenile than the original.
Will remind parents of their own youth, and it will aid those living theirs out now to cope a little easier -- and that's just what a children's film should do.
Film.com
January 01, 2000
The film's OK, a little thick with sensory overload, but it wasn't made for old guys like me.
Apollo Guide
September 25, 2003
A kids' movie that's more serious - and substantial - than most.
There's a certain amateurish quality about Harriet the Spy, but it's more the TV-trained grownups behind the camera...than the pint-sized thespians in front of it.
Internet Reviews
July 25, 2002
The whimsical and meaningless first part dissolves into a mean spirited and disturbing concluding section.
EmanuelLevy.Com
October 30, 2006
A below mediocre adaptation of the popular novel that is nonetheless served well by the two female leads, but all representative of the adults world (parents, teachers, psychologists) are narrow, standard-issue constructions.
