From director David Lynch to actor Val Kilmer, 2025 has already lost several film figures who left indelible marks on audiences over the years. And for the millennial generation, no loss was arguably as heartbreaking as Michelle Trachtenberg’s.
The 39-year-old actress tragically died in New York City on February 26, 2005, from an undetermined cause.
And though the TV and film star left behind a memorable and decade-spanning body of work — including beloved series like the addictively soapy and stylish “Gossip Girl” and the acclaimed supernatural drama “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” as well as popular movies such as “Ice Princess”, “EuroTrip” and “Mysterious Skin” — one title stands out among the bunch: “Harriet the Spy”.”
The beloved 1996 flick saw Trachtenberg in one of her earliest film roles as 11-year-old aspiring spy and writer Harriet M. Welsch, but though aimed at kids, the Bronwen Hughes-directed movie offered up one of the most endearing and enduring depictions of girlhood on celluloid.
And with “Harriet the Spy” available to stream on Paramount Plus as of April 1, it’s the perfect time to revisit the sweet film and the standout performance by its young star.
What is ‘Harriet the Spy’ about?
Based on the 1964 novel of the same name by Louise Fitzhugh, the film follows Harriet M. Welsch (Trachtenberg), a sixth-grade student in New York City who aspires to become a writer and spy.
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With her private journal ever in hand, Harriet spends her days hanging out with her best friends Sport Rocque (Gregory Smith) and Janie Gibbs (Vanessa Lee Chester) and detailing suspicious activity and observations about her friends, peers and neighbors in her notebook, including her bully Marion Hawthorne (Charlotte Sullivan).
However, when Marion discovers Harriet’s spy journal and exposes her brutally honest opinions to all of their classmates, it causes a rift amongst her friends and sets Harriet on a quest for revenge and redemption.
The coming-of-age comedy also stars J. Smith-Cameron and Robert Joy as Harriet’s parents Violetta and Ben Welsch, and Rosie O’Donnell as the youngster’s beloved nanny Catherine “Ole Golly.”
Why you should stream ‘Harriet the Spy’ on Paramount Plus
The mid-1990s had several titles focused on the perspective of young girls, from “Now & Then” to “The Baby-Sitters Club,” but few had as plucky a pre-teen heroine as “Harriet the Spy”.
Then 10 years old, star Michelle Trachtenberg didn’t fall into the cutesy preconsciousness that hindered so many of the decade’s adorable child stars. Instead, she played all of the curiosity, ambition and, yes, messiness of Harriet M. Welsch with full charisma and conviction.
“As Harriet, Michelle Trachtenberg has the features of a smirky young gopher,” wrote Owen Gleiberman wrote in his review for Entertainment Weekly back in 1996. “That face is so adorable it may take you a while to realize how many shades of pride, joy, and — when the other kids turn on her — fear are passing across it.”
Harriet has endured all these decades later because the character felt like a real-life girl, and Michelle Trachtenberg’s assuredly thoughtful and emotionally open performance is largely the reason why.
Though the film was a box-office success, earning back more than double its $12 million budget, “Harriet the Spy” was far from a critical darling. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has only a 47% approval rating from 30 critics.
But the children’s movie is also certainly not without its charms, especially the onscreen connection between Trachtenberg’s Harriet and O’Donnell’s Golly. The goodbye scene between the caretaker and her ever-growing ward was heartbreaking in the ’90s — it’s doubly so now with the loss of a generational talent like Michelle Trachtenberg.
As Golly movingly tells Harriet, “In my life, in this world, there will only be one Harriet.” For us, at least, “Harriet the Spy” will live on forever.
Watch “Harriet the Spy” on Paramount Plus now
