A rub-our-noses-in-it descent into the low life, in the company of a runaway teen. There are some laughs along the way, thanks in large part to the force-of-nature resilience of Reese Witherspoon as the plucky heroine, and thanks in no part to writer-director Matthew Bright's self-congratulation on the strength of his stomach. There are even, quite separate from the laughs, some genuine chills, again thanks in no part to the director's self-congratulation, and in large part to Witherspoon's fingernail grasp on our sympathies. Neither of these types of responses is deepened by the overexplicit parallels to the plotline of "Little Red Riding Hood": the underground-comic illustrations of that fairy tale beneath the opening credits, the red wicker basket the heroine takes with her on the road to Grandma's house, the sexual and homicidal predator by the name of Bob Wolverton (Kiefer Sutherland). The kingdom of myth is not so easily entered. Paraphrase is no open sesame. With Brooke Shields, Amanda Plummer, and Dan Hedaya. (1996) — Duncan Shepherd
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