Movie Review - The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane

The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (1976)

Starring Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, Alexis Smith, and Scott Jacoby

Directed by Nicolas Gessner

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

A Jodie Foster horror film?  That notion enticed me enough to watch, but I found The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane just all around odd.  Granted, the weirdness perhaps kept my interest piqued a bit longer than I expected, but the whole thing felt like an (off-) off-Broadway play simply filmed for the screen in terms of set-up, dialog, and directing.

Thirteen year-old Rynn (Jodie Foster) is incredibly (and I mean incredibly) wise for her age.  When we first meet her, she's greeting Frank Hallet (Martin Sheen), the adult son of her landlady, who barges into her home and uncomfortably attempts to entice Rynn into believing she should become his girlfriend.  I'm saying that all too nicely...Frank is an alleged child molester and a known creep around town.  However, the cops have never been able to pin any crimes on him.  Nonetheless, Rynn gets out of that situation by yelling for her father whom she says is in his study.  However, and herein lies the central mystery, Rynn's father has been dead for several months.  He's left her with the necessary things to stay alive, but she must continue to pretend he's still around in order to avoid being taken into foster care.  Needless to say, Rynn finds herself doing what's necessary in order to maintain her current lifestyle...even if that means doing things that would place any "normal" person in jail.

Story-wise, I feel like there could have been something here, but the character of Rynn is just too wise for her age.  The only reason it's even remotely believable is because Foster always has exuded a wise aura, but even she can't fully succeed here.  Maybe if Rynn was a seventeen year-old, I could have stretched my imagination a bit, but at thirteen, I just don't see the realism in this.  And that's ultimately a big problem and the film's downfall.

Foster, as I mentioned, is good in one of her early roles and Martin Sheen is undeniably creepy, but they can't save a story that just doesn't ring true.  It doesn't help that Nicolas Gessner filmed this almost like a stage play with a severe lack of imagination in his camera work.  This by-the-books basic direction reeked of low budget tv movie of the week rather than feature film.

The RyMickey Rating:  C-