Bleak Past Catches Up To a Troubled Present

"I never wanted this for you," says Kit's mother, portrayed by Julia Ormond. "You should be out playing, not worrying about boarders and mortgages and selling eggs." (Selling eggs to raise money is what Kit considers to be "one step away from the poorhouse.")

There have been three made-for-television movies based on various American Girl dolls, and this film represents a calculated leap to the big screen. Choosing to showcase Kit was a decision vetted by Goldsmith-Thomas and a group of her fellow advisers and producers (including Julia Roberts, who was introduced to the American Girl concept by niece Emma Roberts of "Nancy Drew").

Picturehouse President Bob Berney acknowledges that there were some initial concerns about how well a period film -- at least one without dungeons or dragons -- would do among young audiences. What he didn't expect was how timely the film would be.

"Suddenly, there are too many associations with some of the themes in the movie," Berney says. "But, in a way, it makes it relevant."

For director Patricia Rozema ("Mansfield Park"), one of the film's key scenes is when Kit and her friends tour the "hobo jungle," the shantytown where those who ride the rails and trade work for food make their home.

"The voice-over there says that 'we're all a few strokes of bad luck away from being in the same situation ourselves,' " Rozema says. "That's basically central to my reasons for making the movie. It's a good thing for people in wealthy nations to remember."

Rozema says she tries to teach her daughters, who are 4 and 12, that their worth isn't dependent on the family's type of house, car or gadgets. "Which," she says, "is really hard to teach children in any concrete way when you give it all to them anyway."

That registers as ironic, given that American Girl dolls are big-ticket items. But as expensive and commercial as the toys have become -- a doll-and-book set can exceed $100 -- parents (and grandparents, aunts and uncles) flock to buy them because of the nature of the message associated with them.

"I don't think of them as dolls -- I think of them as characters," Goldsmith-Thomas says. "Sometimes you have to look back to see where you're going. To see others who have made it through."