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Boys as well as girls said it’s about time someone made an adventuremovie about girls. “Gold Diggers” deftly drew both sexes into the story by showing real girls, not just female versions of Huck and Tom. The girls in this movie are like girls kids really know: They gossip, they shop, they dance and they also have the courage of their convictions even when adults don’t seem to be on their side.

It’s the type of movie that has kids talking back to the screen (“That’s not true!”), and many were on the edge of their seats, chewing their nails. “It was like really tense,” said Emily Hitchens, 12, of Long Beach. “I felt like I was actually in the movie, I got into it so much.”

The action takes place in 1980 in a small town in the Northwest where Beth and her widowed mother, an aspiring writer, have moved to escape Los Angeles. Beth is in culture shock, as the nearest mall is 25 miles away and the most exciting thing people do is move somewhere else. She strikes up what looks to outsiders like an unlikely friendship with Jody who, other girls warn her, is trashy, gets in fights and lies. Besides, they say, Jody’s mother is a “boozer.”

As it turns out, Jody’s mother’s boyfriend also is a boozer, and a batterer to boot. But Jody is sure no one will believe that because to outsiders, he is such a nice guy. She also is sure that no one will believe there is gold in Bear Mountain, but she persuades Beth to follow a map she found in an old library book.

The girls are inspired by the book’s mysterious subject, Molly Morgan, a strong-willed teen from the turn of the century, who disappeared without a trace.

Ten-year-old Stephen Becker of Costa Mesa said the plot was full of surprises. Cousins Brittany Long, 7, and Heather Viles, 8, were scared and nervous when an accident left Beth trapped under a rock in a dark cave filling up with the incoming tide as Jody ran for help.

Tiana Salazar, 10, of Huntington Beach, jumped when Jody encountered a real, roaring bear. “I liked that Jody girl,” Tiana said. “She was brave.” And she liked the strong friendship between the two girls. “They saved each other’s lives.”

But Tiana’s friend, 12-year-old Tyler Hernandez of Huntington Beach, was more skeptical. “It was kind of outrageous how they made it through the whole cave. And the part where she got her leg crushed under a rock. It would have broken the skin, and she wasn’t even bleeding.”

Nevertheless, he and others liked seeing adventuresses in film. “That part was good. Most of them are boys. Now it’s time for a little change,” Tyler said.

As always, kids enjoyed seeing the tables turned on adults, particularly in scenes where Beth takes charge of the search for Jody, who is lost in Bear Mountain with the boyfriend who has forced her to lead him to the gold.

Like it or not, the kids said, sometimes kids are smarter than adults. As Chris Moore, 11, of Costa Mesa put it, “Adults tend not to be that smart when they’re drinking alcohol and taking drugs.”