Nancy Drew is a 2007 American film loosely based on the popular series of mystery novels about the titular teen detective. It stars Emma Roberts as Nancy Drew, Max Thieriot as Ned, Kay Panabaker as George, and Amy Bruckner as Bess Marvin. The film was rated PG by the MPAA for "mild violence, thematic elements and brief language." Set in Los Angeles, it was directed by Andrew Fleming.

Critics' reaction to it was mixed, with the film scoring a 49% at Rotten Tomatoes. One reviewer felt that it "caters to an exclusive club whose members are prone to overlook its numerous faults" and it was mocked in The New Yorker. The critics who did like it generally thought it was refreshing. The film grossed $30,666,930 worldwide on a $20 million budget.

Plot

Nancy Drew (Emma Roberts) and her father, Carson Drew (Tate Donovan), move from River Heights for a few months and rent a house in California, where Carson has a temporary job. Nancy chose their California house because it was the home of the murdered movie star, Dehlia Draycott, whose case has never been solved. Despite the mystery, Nancy's father has forbidden her from further sleuthing and encourages her to focus on high school and being normal. Nancy struggles to fit in at her new school, only befriending a younger boy, Corky (Josh Flitter). She realizes that the sleuthing world is the only place she fits and decides to solve the Draycott mystery. In the Draycott mansion, she discovers a letter that Draycott wrote to an unknown "Z", who was supposedly Draycott's love interest. From photographs of Draycott before her death, she figures out that just before her death, Draycott had a child and gave it up for adoption in privacy. She learns that the child, Jane Brighton (Rachael Leigh Cook), is the sole beneficiary of Draycott's will, which has disappeared. Nancy receives a threatening phone call telling her to get off the case, and contacts her father's business associate, Dashiel Biedermeyer (Barry Bostwick), the lawyer of the Draycott estate, to assist her with the case.