There's something very weird about Andrew Fleming's movie, perhaps because it's essentially The Black Dahlia for tweens, with kissing but without the sex or mutilation.

Carolyn Keene's straitlaced teen detective gets a modern, ironic makeover, but the irony wobbles and the jokes aren't strong enough to carry it.

For sheer objectionable stupidity and dullness, this film takes the biscuit.

And despite clunky dialogue, sometimes lamentable support and an inexplicable cameo by Bruce Willis (as himself), Roberts remains unflappable throughout.