Review Tuesday: Carrie (2013)

I finally got a chance to sit down and watch the latest incarnation of an old Stephen King novel.

CARRIE (2013)

Carrie White, a strange high school girl, is laughed at for the last time when she unleashes her darkest secret on her class at the prom.

I'm not going to lie. A large part of the reason why I decided to watch this was because it starred Chloë Grace Moretz in the title role. She's already had at her young age an impressive career and does a good job. But she was clearly way too pretty for the role, and I was wondering how they were going to work with this.

This new version of Carrie is less of a cinemazation of the original tome by Stephen King (reviewed HERE) and more of a remake of the movie from the 70s (reviewed HERE) just updated to reflect modern times. The trailer gave me the incorrect notion that the movie would more closely follow the book's method of storytelling, and that bummed me out. But you should never experience anything with expectations unless you want to be let down.

Based on it's own merits, I would call this less of a horror story and more of a teenage romance gone bad. Carrie White is raised by a Bible thumping flesh mortifying mother who feels women are weak and borderline evil. Carrie is a misfit in her school because she's unable to make friends due to her upbringing and her family life. You get this whole teen after-school movie feel from it all. The poor child who was abused by her mom and peers but then we're tossed the telekinesis twist. Carrie learns that she has this power and harnesses it quietly. Finally a conspiracy to ruin her at the prom causes Carrie to unleash the full extent of her power and destroy everyone around her.   

On it's own, I would say this movie is okay at best. While Chloe Moretz and Julianne Moore both did very good jobs in their important roles, there's a lot of wooden acting by the supporting staff, especially Ansel Elgort who plays Tommy Ross. His voice is a monotonous drone that creates instant boredom in your head. A pleasant surprise in the movie was Judy Greer who plays Ms. Desjardin. I'm not sure if she was truly great in the role, or just seemed so with the lack of energy from most of the rest of the cast. 

In comparison to the original, it's okay at best. It scores some extra points because the high school kids don't look like they are middle-aged. That always bugged me!

Compared to the book, it's a let down. CARRIE doesn't take up many pages, but weaves quite a tale. I would never expect every page of a book to ever be able to hit the big screen, but how about keeping to the story? Moretz was just too pretty for the role even in her modesty clothes. Moore was way more insane than the bible thumper that Margaret White was supposed to be (I don't recall any mortification of the flesh in the book!). Actually there were several departures that actually changed the nature story. As someone who read the book and liked it, I found the changes to be a bummer.

From any point of view, I would say this movie is okay. Not great. Not terrible. It felt like and should've been a made-for-television movie. If you don't have to pay for it, you won't hate yourself for watching this latest version of the book CARRIE.

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