“Carrie” uses tragedy to present a strong anti-bullying message despite its many flaws.
Carrie White (Chloe Grace Moretz, “Kick-Ass 2”) is a social outcast trying to survive the world of high school. She is a quiet girl who has been sheltered by her mother, Margaret White (Julianne Moore, “Crazy, Stupid, Love”) her whole life.
Her mother has instilled in her some radical religious beliefs, and because of this, she freaks out in the middle of the girls locker room when she has her first period. The other girls laugh at her because they do not understand her home life. She is humiliated as they throw things at her, make fun of her and record these actions on their cell phones.
One of the girls, cheerleader Chris Hargensen (Portia Doubleday, “Youth in Revolt”) posts the video online. When the cheerleading coach, Ms. Desjardin (Judy Greer, “Arrested Development”), finds out about the video, she makes all of the cheerleaders do difficult exercises. Hargensen rebels, and Desjardin bans her from being able to attend prom. Chris is mad, and she wants to humiliate Carrie further.
Meanwhile, Sue Snell (Gabriella Wilde, “The Three Musketeers”), a cheerleader who was also involved in bullying Carrie at the beginning of the film, feels guilty about what happened. To make up for it, she asks her boyfriend, Tommy Ross (Ansel Elgort) to ask Carrie to prom.
In the midst of these happenings, Carrie finds out she has supernatural powers. She can move objects with her mind, and she begins researching this phenomenon.
Carrie eventually agrees to go to prom with Ross, but Hargensen plans on using the event to humiliate Carrie. Neither Ross nor Snell know anything about this plan. Without spoiling anything, something big happens while they are there.
This movie is effective in getting the audience to relate to Carrie by the end. We realize she has been going through a lot in her life. She was raised by a mother who does not seem to want her to be happy, and no one takes her seriously because she is such an outcast. Both her social and family lives are completely screwed up.
When she goes to prom with Tommy Ross, the film does a great job at showing just how happy Carrie is. This adds to the tragedy of the situation because it is very predictable what is going to happen. However, this predictability is put to good use. Because we know what is going to happen, the audience feels bad for Carrie as the scene unfolds.
There are a couple of decent performances. Julianne Moore does a very good job at being a creepy woman who seems to misinterpret Christian beliefs and uses them to make Carrie’s life miserable. She is the epitome of the radical Christian, who even resorts to self-mutilation.
I personally did not like this character. She is one-dimensional, over-the-top and not realistic. Furthermore, she seems to be used as a tool to say that Christianity messed Carrie’s life up. There is a definite anti-Christian message this film gave that I, and likely many readers, do not appreciate.
Looking past that, there is a very good message as well that addresses the problem of bullying. This comes with the tragedy that happens at the end of the film. Since it is a spoiler, I will not reveal what it is exactly. I will say it has to do with people pushing Carrie so far that horrific things happen.
Another good performance is Ansel Elgort in his debut role as Tommy Ross. Though his performance is not the most outstanding, he does a very good job considering it is his first film. He has a likeability and charm that reminds me of Shia LaBeouf.
Chloe Grace Moretz does a good job in her portrayal as the title character. She is very believable as the broken outcast. When she is at prom, she really seems to be having a good time. When everything goes wrong, she does a great job at making it believable.
There are some problems with the direction done by Kimberly Peirce. The most noticeable is the use of instant replay. At least two different scenes showed something happen, and then it happened two more times. I can understand why Peirce does this: it is to emphasize how important this action is. However, it is a little annoying.
Carrie’s mom is not the only person who is one-dimensional. The high school students who are in on Chris’s plan to humiliate Carrie are also that way. Their motivations do not seem very fleshed out, and in the end they just seem like rotten kids.
This may have more to do with the acting than anything. This movie suffers in that the high schoolers are all beautiful people. The actors were obviously hired because of their physical appearance. It seems like the casting director was not as concerned about their talent.
I give this movie three out of five stars. It does have its share of problems, but I can understand why. The director and some of the actors are fairly new. Despite these flaws, there is a powerful anti-bullying message that comes with the movie. I would have given this movie three-and-a-half stars, but because of the blatant anti-Christian message, I lowered it.
For those who want to know if you should see this in theatres or the original on Netflix, I watched that version as well. This new version is definitely better. I may be a little biased because it is a much older movie. There are some scenes that are word-for-word the same, but the style is a lot more archaic. If you decide to watch the original, be warned that there are at least two scenes of full-frontal female nudity. If that does not bother you, go ahead and watch it.
I would not necessarily recommend seeing this movie in theatres, but it is definitely worth a look when it comes to Redbox. Furthermore, I would definitely see it a second time if I had the chance.
Content: Rated R. There is some graphic violence. A couple disturbing scenes depict self-mutilation. One scene shows a couple engaged in intercourse, but there is no nudity. There is a little sexual content besides that. There is some language, including a few F-words.
A version of this review was originally published in The Utah Statesman, a student run newspaper at Utah State University on Oct. 29, 2013.
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