Review: 'The Kid Detective' turns Encyclopedia Brown upside down, for a weird stab at suburban noir

Writer-director Evan Morgan’s “The Kid Detective” is one of those rare films that could earn a one-star review or a four-star review, or anything in between — and a critic could find himself leaning one way on a particular day, and the other way just hours later.

Morgan’s suburban noir thriller centers on Abe Applebaum (Adam Brody), who was once the most talked-about 12-year-old in town, as a private detective who could solve any mystery brought before him — usually involving shenanigans at the school.

But that was 20 years ago, and he’s still a detective, but the town isn’t as impressed any more. His mom (Wendy Crewson) is still proud of his industrious brain, though his dad (Jonathan Whittaker) wishes he would get a real job. Abe also drinks a lot, and barely maintains his detective agency and pays his Goth secretary, Lucy (Sarah Sutherland, Keifer’s daughter).

Morgan tells us, fairly soon, what led to Abe’s downfall. It was the one case he couldn’t solve: His 14-year-old secretary, and the mayor’s daughter, Gracie Gulliver (Kaitlyn Chalmers-Rizzato) was kidnapped. The whole town, and Abe himself, expected him to crack it. Instead, it cracked him.

Abe’s memories and insecurities resurface 20 years later, when a high school boy is stabbed and thrown into a river. The boy’s girlfriend, Caroline (Sophie Nélisse, all grown up from “The Book Thief”), hires Abe to find out who killed him.

The trail of clues leads Abe to the high school, a reunion with his old principal, Mr. Erwin (Peter MacNeill), and some harsh memories about his past cases — the one he couldn’t solve, and the ones he did solve that left a mark on the community.

As a first-time director, Morgan has trouble finding the right tone. Early on, we’re invited to think of Abe as a laughable screwball. The deeper the story goes, into some disturbing material, it’s hard not to think about when the movie was lulling us into a false sense of emotional security. And the ending is supposed to be an emotional gut punch, but it’s hard to feel it when the rest of the movie works to convince you that nothing really matters.

Like I said, though, “The Kid Detective” carries a high “your mileage may vary” quotient. Ask me in a week and I might hate it. Ask me in two weeks and I may defend it to the ends of the earth. It’s that kind of strangeness.

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‘The Kid Detective’

★★1/2

Opens Friday, October 16, at theaters where open. Rated R for language, drug use, some sexual references, brief nudity and violence. Running time: 97 minutes.