Another turn of the screw

Normally, I agree with people here who are against pointless remakes of classic movies ("The Innocents") or hip, modernized adaptations of classic novels ("Turn of the Screw"). But "Turn of the Screw" is such a deeply ambiguous novel that you could make a hundred different movies from it and they wouldn't necessarily resemble each other too much. This is not really a remake of "The Innocents" because it takes a very different (and, for better or worse, pretty unambiguous)interpretation of the novel. Also, although it's definitely modernized, at least it's not your usual Hollywood gloss job with some teen-idol TV star; it was apparently made in Luxemburg! And Leelee Sobieski flirted with teen idol-dom briefly several years ago, but she got her start in a memorably disturbing role in Stanley Kubrick's "Eyes Wide Shut".

Not to say this is a great movie. Sobieski seems a little inhibited in what is a pretty sexual role (Isn't this the same actress who once bragged about being the first actual virgin to play Joan of Arc?). It's makes sense the character would be inhibited, but the actress playing her should have gone balls-out. She (and Tara Fitzgerald) are also much too pretty for these roles. (Why does Sobieski's character have a cell-phone when she is probably the first drop-dead beautiful women in human history who doesn't seem to have any friends or boyfriends?). That's typical though I guess. And weak as she was, I can't think of another American actress her age today who could have or would have been any better (Of course, they could have used an older or non-American actress. . .)

At least, this is better than some loose Henry James' adaptations like "The Nightcomers", not to mention about 75 percent of what passes for "horror" movies these days.

Exterminate the Brutes!