The big mystery in this confused, mediocre kids' adventure is what to do with everyone's favourite titian-haired girl detective, who has been looking for secrets in old clocks and finding clues in broken lockets since 1930. It's not that Nancy hasn't been tweaked before. In 1959, the classic Nancy Drew books were revised to get rid of references to rumble seats and running boards, and Nancy's cover outfits were changed from tweed suits and cloche hats to pleated skirts and a smart bob.

Nancy's chums George and Bess and her housekeeper Hannah Gruen are all jettisoned in the first 10 minutes, left behind in quaint old '50s-style River Heights. Nancy's "tall, handsome" lawyer father, Carson Drew (Tate Donovan), has been transferred to Los Angeles, and she's going with him, under strict no-sleuthing orders.