The film tells the story of 12-year-old brilliant, brash, and totally unmanageable Gilly Hopkins (Sophie Nélisse) who finds herself shuffled from foster home to foster home until she meets Maime Trotter (Kathy Bates).
The problem is one of tone, as director Stephen Herek ("Mr. Holland's Opus") takes scenes that should be earnestly serious and plays them for uncomfortable laughs.
The movie feels too hokey and retrograde to appeal to its intended young audience. There's also a miscalculated racial element that may offend or confuse.
Filled with remarkable performances, 'The Great Gilly Hopkins' pulls no punches. It is not a sickly sweet movie -- but hope and humanity shine through.
The Great Gilly Hopkins has its enjoyable moments - Bates' entertaining, scenery-chewing turn providing many of them - and its themes are refreshingly complex for a film targeted to kids.
