3.5 stars. Rating: R, for bloody violence, disturbing images, blasphemy, profanity and sexual content
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 10.18.13
Sissy Spacek was 27 when she
starred in 1976’s first stab at Stephen King’s Carrie.
Although she acted the hell out of
that role — pun intended — and garnered a well-deserved Oscar nomination for
her efforts, she never quite looked or “felt” the part; her residual baby-fat
years were a decade behind her. The actresses playing Carrie’s tormentors, all
in their mid-20s, also looked too old for their parts ... but that’s how
director Brian De Palma was able to get away with all the nudity in the
infamous opening shower scene.
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| Having made a dress and tried hard to transform herself into a young woman as typical as her many classmates, Carrie (Chloë Grace Moretz) nervously pauses before joining the teens entering the doors that lead to the school prom. Her escort, Tommy (Ansel Elgort), gently insists that everything will be fine ... but we know better. |
With respect to
age-appropriateness, then, Chloë Grace Moretz’s presence in director Kimberly
Peirce’s fresh take on Carrie is a step in the right direction. Indeed, a
massive step: At 16, Moretz is precisely right; she exudes the soft
vulnerability of a repressed little girl whose horrific upbringing has further
stunted her transition to womanhood.
Moretz is terrific in the role:
never better than when she displays the heartbreaking flicker of trust over
Carrie’s ill-advised hope that maybe, perhaps, she’s about to be accepted by
her high school peers. Moretz’s deer-in-the-headlights insecurity, at such
moments, wafts off her in palpable waves; we grieve for what we know is about
to come.
Every generation seems to demand
its own version of Carrie, and no surprise; King really touched a nerve with
this story. As an iconic character, Carrie White seems destined for more lives
than a cat; aside from De Palma’s original adaptation and this new film, we’ve
also experienced lesser entries in 1999 (a sequel of sorts, titled The Rage:
Carrie 2) and 2002 (a TV movie with Angela Bettis).
Bullied gay teens may command
most of the headlines these days, but there remains no shortage of tormented children
of all stripes. Girls can be particularly cruel to the disenfranchised
ducklings in their midst, as King knew first-hand, from his early days as an
English teacher in Maine’s Hamden Public School.
If anything, the situation may be
getting worse. Only a few short days ago, two Florida girls — 12 and 14 — were
arrested and charged with felony aggravated stalking, following the suicide, a
month earlier, of a 12-year-old classmate. The arrests were made after one of
the tormentors posted the following message on Facebook last Saturday: “Yes ik
[I know] I bullied REBECCA nd she killed her self but [I don’t care].”
Charming generation, this social
media set.
