Little Secrets (2002)

'LITTLE' BOYS David Gallagher and Michael Angarano tell ''Secrets''

Long, lean, silky-haired Evan Rachel Wood, who plays Al Pacino's exceptionally mature teenage daughter in ''Simone,'' plays a similarly poised young person in Little Secrets, a movie for young persons that teaches gentle lessons about when to keep quiet -- and when to speak up. (Crib-sheet summary: Don't blab other people's confidences, but do open up to others, because trust and intimacy are more important than perfect hair.)

Wood, from TV's ''Once and Again,'' plays Emily, a 14-year-old budding violinist, elegant as an old-time debutante, who runs a backyard business in Suburbia, USA, as the paid keeper of local kids' minor-infraction confessions -- which are theoretically cheaper to deposit with an older kid than with a parent. That she exhibits a sense of confidence, fashion style, and makeup expertise far beyond anyone else in the neighborhood is beside the point: Emily's own deep secret has to do with her place in her own family, of particular sensitivity because her mother, now pregnant and breathtakingly self-absorbed, is ridiculously stupid about her daughter's feelings. The kids in this syrupy family picture are spunky tykes and the adults are dolts, but Wood is worth watching because she's so clearly ready to play nobody's girl but her own.