Reviews

This movie has a "made-for-tv" feel to it with mediocre actors and shallow character development. Being a big fan of the book, I was disappointed that the movie made some major changes to the plot and even eliminated some heirs. The joy of the book are the quarky characters and unexpected twists of the story. The movie comes across as more bland and contrived. I didn't really root for any of the characters to win the game. My advice, skip the film and just read the book by Ellen Raskin which won the Newbery Medal.