We watched this with our 7 and 4 year olds and found it a very good family movie that was enjoyable to watch even though it dealt with very weighty topics.

I found myself explaining aspects of war to the kids, introducing very current topics as at the time of this writing the United States is at war in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I felt this movie helped give an appropriate introduction of weighty topics such that the kids can understand a bit more about their world without being thrown into depression or overwhelmed with things they can't understand.

The movie also illustrates the value of persistence, hard work, studying, reading, being polite and considerate, altruism, compassion, helpfulness, and not giving up hope. All of that in such a way that you hardly notice; there's never a sense of preaching or proselytizing.

The acting is TERRIFIC... Molly's teacher does an amazing job of period acting, Emily plays her part well and Molly herself is done in a style that is rare in American cinema; a complete contrast to Samantha.

That being said I liked the character of Samantha better and there a few flaws in the movie. I have not read the books, so I'm judging the movie entirely on its own merits and vs Samantha which was the only other movie in this series that we've seen.

Overally hurray for this movie and the series.

I am unfamiliar with the series of "American Girl" books, so I viewed this film strictly on its own merits, just to see how accurately it depicts the American home front of World War II. Believe me, it does so astonishingly well. Frankly, I did not expect much from such a modest, unheralded release, but "An American Girl on the Home Front" is a sincere effort that should shame the shallow-minded producers of Hollywood rubbish. The screenplay is convincing, the performances and direction are uniformly excellent, and the sense of period is wonderfully captured, with evocative props, staging, and costumes. The people on screen seem utterly real instead of cardboard stereotypes, and the plot kept me guessing. I genuinely felt for these characters - even bringing tears to the eyes - and the film made me wish for a simpler, more innocent time than what we experience today. Watch this film, and grieve for a long-lost America that will never be again.

I grew up on the American Girl series. So, naturally, I was very excited about the books being re-done as movies. The Molly movie was just terrible, and threw in too much that wasn't in the book. Since the movie took place in 1944, we would expect that Molly would have become long accustomed to the changes that US involvement in WW II brought. Instead, she whines her way through everything. The movie shows a world and a family that managed to pass through 1942 and 1943 relatively untouched. In the books, she was excited about Emily's coming from England to stay with her family. Her father was away in Europe until the very end; he did not "suddenly" decide to enlist. What happened to her stay at summer camp, her troubles with multiplication, or her school's war assistance drive? Moreover, the finale never happened. Molly did not perform in the tap recital--she got sick from trying to curl her hair and sleep on it while it was wet. Can they get much worse? I hope not.