The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane – When Clarice was more like Hannibal?

I know I’m a little late to the party in terms of watching ‘The Little Girl Who Lived Down the Lane,’ as it was made back in the seventies and I’ve only just discovered it.  Despite my love of films I’d never even heard of it and came across it quite by accident on an online streaming service.  I didn’t know what to expect, other than it had the (always great) Jodie Foster in it, plus a practically-unrecognisable (due to his youth) Martin Sheen (I guess he had to be young once, I’ve just never seen him looking like that!).

Foster plays Rynn Jacobs – a 13-14 year old girl (age deliberately unclear for reasons you’ll have to find out by watching the film!) who is wise beyond her years and yet never really comes across as smug or forced.  In fact, despite her undisclosed wisdom, she actually comes across as quite vulnerable.  She lives with her father, who is a workaholic poet and the pair of them have recently moved to a small town in America to escape city life.  Some of the locals do wonder about the couple and subtly (and sometimes completely UNsubtly try to stick their noses into the pair’s affairs.  And, from this, we start to see more than we expect to.

If ever a film cemented an actor’s credentials that she was more than capable of carrying a film, even at a young age, then it was this one.  This is Jodie Foster’s film through and through.  Martin Sheen is good (and creepier than I’ve ever seen him), but it’s Foster who shines out.  I would imagine that anyone who watched this film back when it was released must have realised that she was destined for mega-stardom.

It’s also a film where I can’t really say too much about the plot for fear of giving away spoilers.  You’ll only get the one chance to watch it and not know how things are going to unfold.  It’s quite a ‘straightforward’ story, mainly taking place inside the family home – so much so in fact that I couldn’t help but imagine how this could easily have been a stage play.  There aren’t that many characters to follow, but the story is simple (and when I say ‘simple’ I also mean different) which will make you want to know how things turn out. 

I guess, if I had to try and put this film in to a genre then I’d hedge my bets and say it was a ‘drama-thriller.’ The drama bit is easy to classify, but don’t go expecting any fast-paced thrills here.  There aren’t any fancy special effects, major ‘set-pieces’ or anything else that may say ‘big budget,’ but don’t let that put you off.  It may be old and look a little a little dated by today’s standards, but if you like carefully-crafted slow burning films which will make you wonder how they will end, definitely give this one a go.  I can’t believe it flew below my radar for so long.
7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that