The Greening of Whitney Brown

A middle schooler who thinks she has it all figured out finds herself tossed from 1 percent-ville to 99-percent-land in a cute new film in limited release called “The Greening of Whitney Brown.”  Sammi Hanratty plays the title character, a spoiled prep school princess who is elected school president on a platform that is all about throwing the biggest, best, and most expensive party.  But then her father loses his job when his company goes bankrupt and her parents (Aiden Quinn and Brooke Shields) take her to a place in the country that is all they have left.  Everything is old and broken, there’s a horse that follows her around like Mary’s little sheep, she gets no cell phone reception, and everything she thought she knew about what makes someone popular turns out not to apply in her new school.

Whitney has to start over more than once, especially after it turns out that the friend she trusted to watch out for her at her old school is more competitive and less loyal than she thought.  As Whitney’s parents begin to figure out a path to a new career out in the country, Whitney begins to understand that things she once thought were important don’t matter and things she once dismissed without a thought are where the real value lies.