The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976) Review

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(More customer reviews)The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (Nicolas Geesner, 1976)
I find myself more willing to forgive a film for not sticking to its literary roots when I've seen the film first, and such is the case with The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane. It's hard to believe it's been almost thirty years since I first saw this film, but it is; when I rented it last weekend on a nostalgia trip, I found that it's lost none of its brilliance over time.
Much of that has to do with the performances of the two principals, Jodie Foster (fresh off her success in Taxi Driver) and Martin Sheen (three years after Badlands, three years before Apocalypse Now). Foster plays a thirteen-year-old girl menaced by pedophile Sheen, but takes care of herself quite nicely in that regard (in fact, Foster's character here might have been the poster-child for what is known today as empowerment). There's a subplot going on about Foster's mysterious father, whom no one ever sees, and a related coming-of-age one about her falling in love with the nephew of a member of the local constabulary. All of it is handled quite nicely, and while things are rushed, they're done as well as they can be; chalk it up to Laird Koenig adapting his own novel for the screen. It's almost enough to forgive the large gaps those who have read the book will notice, and Gessner's almost amateurish handling of the passage of time (it seems almost as if Foster and the nephew, played by Diary of Anne Frank/Return to Horror High star Scott Jacoby, go from wary acquaintances to lovers overnight, since Jacoby does nothing to show the passage of weeks except add snow to the scene; he must not have ever lived in Cleveland, where snow on Halloween may be uncommon, but does happen now and then).
Highly underrated atmospheric suspense. A must-see for Jodie Foster fans. ****

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Some little girls can be murder! Thirteen-year-old Rynn (Foster) is a gifted prodigy who lives in a big old house with her reclusive father...all alone. Or does she? When Rynn's nosy landlady and a lecherous neighbor (Sheen) begin to susupect that this little girl is hiding a dark and dangerous secret, Rynn is determined to preserve her isolated existence at any cost - and stop those vicious rumors dead in their tracks!

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