Dear Eleanor

Set in 1962, Dear Eleanor centers on San Joaquin Valley girl Ellie (Liana Liberato), whose mother dies in a car accident on the same day as Marilyn Monroe. Ellie's best friends, Max (Isabelle Fuhrman) and Billy (Joel Courtney), decide to write a letter to Eleanor Roosevelt, because Ellie's mother revered the former first lady. And then Billy sends a forged letter from Roosevelt inviting Ellie to visit New York. Ellie and Max take her up on the offer, with 15-year-old Ellie taking her father's car along with a pocketful of cash from selling her mother's piano. While the girls are staying in cheap motel rooms, Ellie's dad (Luke Wilson) joins forces with Billy to track them down, although this isn't the kind of film where anything too bad will happen. The girls meet a friendly local (Ione Skye) who gives them a place to stay, and her son (Patrick Schwarzenegger) shares a cigarette and kiss with Ellie. While traveling through the Southwest, they also pick up Max's Aunt Daisy (Jessica Alba), an aspiring showgirl, and infamous prison escapee Frank Morris (Josh Lucas), who shares their love of classic movies. Even though this upbeat cross-country road trip takes place during troubled times (including the Cuban Missile Crisis), director Kevin Connolly keeps the tone light, never straying too far from the endearing friendship between Ellie and Max. Recommended. (K. Fennessy)