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Pollyanna Movie Review

Pollyanna is a 1960 live-action family film from Disney directed by David Swift and starring Hayley Mills. It’s a saccharine picture.

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“Nobody owns a church, no one“

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Pollyanna, a 12-year-old orphan, goes to live with her Aunt Polly in Harrington. By the time Pollyanna leaves Harrington, she transforms the town with her invincible will and goodness. Yes, this is one of those movies that feature an insufferably sweet kid who is so amazing that she ends up helping all adults in the process.

I know that the movie is based on a famous book that is renowned as a classic of children’s literature, and I certainly realize that this adaptation is regarded as a Disney classic. However, I personally found it overlong and way too sugary to be particularly enjoyable. Most of the movie is so damn emotional, which made it difficult to get into as an adult.

I also dislike the main character. I found her overly optimistic, too sweet and way too nice in that typical movie fashion that is not realistic at all. Whom I did like is Aunt Polly. It was interesting following her transformation, that was so well handled. Her arc is ultimately the only worthy storyline in the movie, the richest and most rewarding one emotionally speaking.

As for the other characters, they are all forgettable. And I had a huge problem with the film dealing so much with the inner workings of this town and the politics of it. Those scenes were very uninteresting to me, overly meticulous in detail and simply stalling at the end of the day. I could see that it was based on a book, and of course it perhaps worked out in the novel itself, but these types of scenes never work in the cinematic form, leading to a poor adapted screenplay.

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As for the technical aspects, Pollyanna is excellent. The cinematography is terrific, the costumes are wonderful and the production design is splendid. The acting performances are strong with a couple of really great ones. The dialogue is also fine for what it is. But the pacing is bad and the runtime is way too long, resulting in a rather uninvolving feature.

Though clearly well made, very well acted and at certain times quite moving, Pollyanna is mostly an insufferably saccharine family film that is far from Disney’s best live-action efforts. It’s also way too long and hurt by a very weak adapted screenplay.

My Rating – 3

You can get Pollyanna on Amazon.