This year's hyped-to-the-skies Internet-predator flick "Hard Candy" owes a great debt to its 30-year old precursor, "The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane." A young, well-versed Jodie Foster plays the titular character, who inhabits a lonely house in the woods without any apparent parental supervision. She attracts the attention of the bitchy landlady, her pedophile son (a strong early performance by Martin Sheen), a local cop, and his mischievous son. While the film's central focus is the cover-up of a murder, it also carefully delves into the perceptions adults have of children (and vice versa), not to mention the shifting dynamics of relationships under extreme circumstances. "Little Girl" has a well-developed, almost literary quality to its suspense and characterization--while it delves into some potentially distasteful alleyways, it does so with an admirable restraint that helps heighten the tension.
