THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVES DOWN THE LANE

JODIE FOSTER PLAYS A GIRL HIDING A TERRIBLE SECRET

★★★★☆ (Worth the Watch)

Director: Nicolas Gessner

1976

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is a terrifying tale about a child caught in the cross-hairs of the kind of monster who walks among us: a ped*phile bent on harming her. This is heavy stuff, but despite the subject matter and revenge theme, the script doesn’t veer into exploitative territory. The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane is a grown-up’s movie about a kid who thinks she’s a grown-up, and she will handle this man like she handles everything. On her own terms.

We are quickly introduced to the plot and villain when Frank (Martin Sheen) shows up at thirteen-year old Rynn’s (Jodie Foster) house on Halloween to get candy for his sons who are elsewhere. Rynn—who cleans the house and pays the bills and likes learning new languages—lives in an isolated home with her reclusive poet father, and when he doesn’t come downstairs, Frank gets relaxed. We can tell he singled her out long before this scene by the way he talks to her. It would be offensive to call Foster and Rynn precocious; it would be trite to say Foster plays Rynn with a maturity beyond her years. As an actor, she has always exuded a regal togetherness that comes out in most roles, and Rynn is no exception. The girl is serious, frank, polite, and smart; without much prodding, she knows this man is a predator, and knows to stay away. Unfortunately, that’s impossible as his mother owns the house her and her father are renting.

This is a horror movie where one wrong move by our heroine results in consequences that feel too close to home. Your skin crawls when Frank has her cornered, you get worried when he becomes more aggressive in trying to find out why Rynn’s father won’t see him or why Rynn is homeschooled. Martin Sheen plays Frank as if he’s faultless. Other well-acted portrayals of child predators—Jackie Earle Haley in Little Children (2006) and Peter Lorre in M (1931)—are of deviants who hate themselves, but Sheen’s Frank is sleazy and cool and has no problem with who he is. The girl and the audience knows he’ll keep coming back until he gets what he wants.

A boy named Mario who works part time as a magician shows up one day, and using a blend of humor and awkwardness, manages to befriend the bristly Rynn, and gain her trust. Foster and Scott Jacoby do a great job in their scenes together and their characters’ friendship feels natural and real. Mario comes off as a knight in shining armor ready to save his new friend, but he’s caught off guard when this girl appears to be doing a pretty damn good job saving herself. It should be disclosed that the movie has a controversial romance between Foster and another teenager. There are similar storylines in contemporary films (Endless Love, The Blue Lagoon) that remind us these movies were a sign of the times, a focus on Romeo and Juliet coupling we no longer encourage in media, for obvious reasons. Though absent of sexual content, these scenes are uncomfortable to watch because of what’s alluded in their conversation. Again, Rynn is making a case that she believes herself to already be a woman who can make grown-up choices.

One of those choices leads to a tragic outcome. As intrusive adults show up to Rynn’s house and get too close to her secret, she’s forced to do what she has to in order to live. As her world falls apart—and the mask Frank wears in public slips farther with each visit—we cheer her most ruthless behavior, not because we want to coddle the girl, but because we hope our own daughters would have her survival instincts.

GENRES: Feminist-Friendly, Psychological

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