Skip to content
The Great Gilly Hopkins? I found this full of ‘life-affirming, syrupy-sweet, make you wanna puke’-type crap.
However, the billing states that attitude’s got a new name in twelve-year-old Gilly Hopkins (Sophie Nélisse) – a brilliant, brash, and totally unmanageable foster kid who’s determined to alienate herself from every foster family she’s placed with – until there’s no choice but to let her reunite with her real mom (Julia Stiles) in San Francisco. When she’s placed with Maime Trotter (Kathy Bates), the strangest foster mom yet, Gilly is convinced she’ll make short work of her – until to Gilly’s surprise and the surprise of everyone around her, except for Trotter, she starts to love her. But then her new home is invaded by the arrival of her biological grandmother (Glenn Close). Will Gilly have to leave the only family she’s ever loved?
Directed by Stephen Herek (Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure), from a script by David Paterson based on the novel by Katherine Paterson, the cast also includes Octavia Spencer, Julia Stiles and Bill Cobbs, and I’m guessing this is the kind of junk that’ll clog up the Disney channel on a Sunday afternoon, but I’ll be giving it a wide berth.
Check out the trailer below and click on the poster for the full-size image.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.