The Kid Detective \/\/FREE\\\\

As a child, Abe Applebaum was a local celebrity as a "kid detective," solving minor mysteries and crimes for the residents of the town of Willowbrook. When he was twelve, his close friend, Gracie Gulliver, disappeared. Despite his investigation, neither he nor the police were able to find her, leaving him traumatized.

The Kid Detective

Now 32, Abe continues to operate his detective agency, despite the concern from his family and derision from his peers for his failure to "grow up." Depressed over his struggling business and the complete lack of respect he is given, he abuses alcohol and drugs to cope. An orphaned high school student named Caroline approaches him for help investigating the murder of her boyfriend, Patrick Chang. Despite never having investigated a murder case before, Abe sees this as a chance to prove himself and agrees to take the case for free.

Abe confronts Principal Erwin at his home and reveals what he has learned. Erwin had become obsessed with Gracie and plotted to kidnap her. The theft of the school fundraiser money had been a test to see if Abe really was as good a detective as people thought, and when he failed to solve the case correctly, Erwin felt confident in carrying out his plan. Caroline is, in fact, the product of Erwin's rape of Gracie and had secretly been left at a church by Erwin after her birth. When he found a lewd picture of Melody in Patrick's locker, he mistook it for Caroline and killed Patrick in revenge for "ruining" her. With his crimes revealed, and confronted by the fact that he murdered Patrick over a mistake, Erwin kills himself in front of Abe. Abe subsequently discovers Gracie, still alive, locked in a shed in Erwin's yard.

The film flashes back to twelve-year-old Abe's (Jesse Noah Gruman) astonishing success as a detective. He was a prodigy. First solving trivial school thefts, then graduating to bigger local crimes. The town treated him like a celebrity. Everything changed when Abe's friend and schoolmate, fourteen-year-old Gracie Gulliver (Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato), vanished without a trace. Everyone expected Abe to solve her disappearance, but he couldn't. The failure destroyed his confidence and standing in the community.

Abe Applebaum (Adam Brody) was a highly successful kid detective, solving relatively minor cases like who stole the school fundraiser money or finding someone's missing cat. He was so beloved by the town that they set him up in his own office. But when one of his classmates goes missing and Abe can't figure out who took her, the town loses faith in him - and he loses faith in himself. As a 32-year-old detective, Abe still solves the same kind of trivial cases he did as a kid. That is, until innocent high schooler Caroline (Sophie Nélisse) asks Abe to figure out who murdered her boyfriend. The mystery will force Abe to confront his past, including his greatest failure, if he's going to solve his very first serious case.

In The Kid Detective, Morgan deftly blends multiple genres together, including comedy, noir and drama. There's an especially cynical portrayal of Abe's town that's reminiscent of classic noir mysteries, and Brody's character even offers his own voiceover narration of the tale, another staple of the genre. This noir style is at odds with the wide-eyed optimism of young Abe, whose story as a kid detective seems ripped right out of the 1950s, but that only serves to highlight the cynicism of Abe and his town later in life. The Kid Detective straddles the line between realism and fantasy, with young Abe's story being a little unbelievable while the character's adult life feels all too real. It all adds to the atmosphere of The Kid Detective because even if the kid detective's meteoric rise strains the viewer's suspension of disbelief, Morgan takes the audience on an entertaining ride.

Leading that ride is, of course, Brody as the adult kid detective. The actor has the perfect balance of cynicism and child-like insecurity to carry off the movie's premise and Abe's journey. As an adult, Abe is haunted by the one mystery he couldn't solve. As a result, he's never truly grown up, still solving the same kind of mysteries he did as a kid, still using the same techniques. Brody manages to bring some real depth to Abe, offering glimpses at how traumatized the detective is by the case of his missing classmate. Brody also works well with Nélisse as the young Caroline, though the actress is given far less to work with, largely playing a stock character meant to instigate Abe's journey. The same goes for much of The Kid Detective's cast, there aren't any really fleshed out characters aside from Abe. But since The Kid Detective is Abe's story alone, that's largely forgivable, especially since Brody's performance is an excellent anchor for the film.

This debut feature by writer and director Evan Morgan, scheduled for release later this month, is intriguing partly because of its double-edged storyline: the comedy/drama is a detective mystery which contains a larger story of failed hopes and personal growth. Despite the title, which suggests a light family comedy, the humour is sharp-edged and dark, while the drama is often poignant, and the characters remain real and sympathetic enough to sustain interest in their fate.

Adam Brody plays Abe Applebaum, an aimless single man in his thirties, and a comically unsuccessful private detective struggling to keep his business afloat. He is the archetype of early promise come to nothing, a childhood prodigy that did not quite fulfil expectations. As a little boy, he became a local celebrity when he solved a minor robbery case which had baffled the police. As we are shown in a series of flashbacks, Abe goes on to solve multiple local puzzles and misdemeanours using his budding investigative talent, which often amounts to nothing more than common sense and observation. His parents were proud of him, his community supported him, he even made a little money with his skill. His position and his self-confidence went into a dive when he failed to solve a more serious case, the kidnapping of a girl named Gracie, who was never found. The case continues to haunt him and stands as an emblem of his inadequacy as he grows to adulthood.

The Kid Detective, basically tells a story of what happens to a famous kid detective when he grows up. Does he continue down the righteous path, or do the years of cases pile up and turn him into something he hates. Written and Directed by Evan Morgan this movie is a very dark comedy, and honestly goes places you would never think possible. Our version of Encyclopedia is Abe Applebaum and he still has the incredible detective skills, but is an extreme alcoholic and has lost all sense of responsibility in his life. When Caroline brings him a murder case to solve though, Abe thinks it may be time to try and clean up his act again. 041b061a72