![]() Remakes are not inherently evil, but there ought to be a reason for them. Younger viewers who have never seen any version of the story will likely enjoy it more for that reason, since the approach seems to be the "Hey, this is all new to them!" one we see in too many remakes.Starring: Chloë Grace Moretz, Julianne Moore, Gabriella Wilde, Portia Doubleday, Alex Russell I couldn’t help ponder the “what if?” of a version of the story told more from Sue’s perspective, among any number of ways that wouldn’t feel so similar to what’s come before. The story of Carrie innately works, so it’s not that this movie needed to change what happens – it just feels too dependent on telling it in the exact way De Palma did. Desjardin, who tires to help Carrie, while Gabriella Wilde and Ansel Elgort are appropriately likeable as the school’s it couple, Sue and Tommy, who decide to do something positive for Carrie, after Sue can’t get past her guilt over joining in on the cruel incident with Carrie that opens the film. Judy Greer, who impressed many by showing her dramatic chops in The Descendants, does good work as gym teacher Ms. At the same time, there are some story beats that feel harder to pull off in this modern era, where the internet - which we see Carrie using at school, away from her mom - could at least help teach her a bit more about the world around her. ![]() Carrie is a young girl suffering abuse at home and vicious and cruel bullying at school and the fact that it’s all going to end tragically, if no one puts a stop to the cycle has resonance, with or without the telekinesis that Carrie can wield in increasingly destructive ways. ![]() Play There are elements of the Carrie story that innately feel even more powerful these days, in the wake of many, many stories about school bullying that have resulted in stunningly sad circumstances. Moore also is able to show how this demented woman can actually be loving at moments towards her daughter, making her quick shift into fire and brimstone proclamations and outright physical abuse towards Carrie all the more horrific. As Margaret, the dependably excellent Moore is suitably frightening and fierce and one well done addition here is seeing more of Margaret’s tendency to self-mutilate. Moretz does good work in the role, especially when she squares off with Moore, as Carrie tries to stand up to Margaret, while gaining more self-confidence… and more telekentic power. The fact that she has been raised in such a horrific, abusive home by her mother is what makes her so uncomfortable in her own skin and withdrawn around her classmates. It’s ultimately inconsequential though because it doesn’t matter what Carrie looks like. There has been some griping about Moretz being too attractive to play Carrie, but let’s face it, no actress who’s played the role, the pretty Sissy Spacek included, looks like the heavier, pimply girl described by King. But, by and large, this is the movie we’ve seen before, down to several shots - Peirce is actually a friend of De Palma’s - evoking De Palma’s work, albeit with none of the iconic split screen near the end. The story has been updated for 2013 – Carrie’s main tormentor, the viciously cruel Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday) now ads camera-phone video footage to her arsenal, when she humiliates her classmate. And while that version is likely a bit too disjointed for a film (though it works wonderfully as a book), it does point out that you don’t have to follow the exact beats as De Palma to offer a compelling version of this story. The thing is, King’s book is much different from any film version of the story – comprised of testimony, interviews and documents about what happened to Carrie and the town she lived in. Cohen, who wrote De Palma Carrie, actually gets a co-screenwriting credit here, as there are many direct lifts of dialogue from that film that were not in the book. Play Though the original source material is King’s book, Peirce’s film feels very much like a remake of Brian De Palma’s hugely successful 1976 film version of the story.
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