Harriet the Spy

Harriet the Spy (1996) is an American family comedy directed by Bronwen Hughes — watch online on iFILM, with Michelle Trachtenberg as eleven-year-old Harriet M. Welsch. The film adapts Louise Fitzhugh's 1964 novel, a staple of English-language children's literature for decades.

Harriet carries a notebook everywhere and fills it with observations about the people around her — neighbours, classmates, her own friends. The entries are sharp and often unkind, the private kind of honesty most kids keep to themselves. When the notebook gets found, everyone she wrote about reads exactly what she thought of them. Rosie O'Donnell plays her beloved nanny Ole Golly, and Eartha Kitt takes the role of the neighbourhood eccentric. The film's real subject is the gap between seeing clearly and treating people well — a harder lesson than Harriet expects. Stream Harriet the Spy (1996) online on iFILM.