Saw this yesterday. It does enough to distance itself from the original in the first half to justify its existence (the Mississippi setting may reek of "fuck the South!", but football and hunting heighten the question of testosterone even more). I liked the switch of David from mathematician to screenwriter, and Bosworth is given more to do as Amy than in the original (she gets revenge, for one).
Unfortunately, like it's mentioned above, the impact of the rape is blown. First of all, forty years later, the scene actually feels like it's pulling punches. The juxtaposition between David hunting and the rape is fascinating but the execution is sloppy (cgi deer did not help!). As well, there are greater pains taken to solve the question of whether or not Amy was "into it" (shudder) in the original, as in this version she won't make eye contact with Charlie afterwards (she also doesn't yell Charlie's name at the end to save her). So although Amy is a seemingly more complex character here (her seductive actions towards Charlie & co. come across more as her spiting David than in the original, which had her spiting David AND still hung up on Charlie), the plot itself is robbed of most of the moral ambiguity. When Charlie sits down and lets Amy get raped, it's not at gun point like in the original. In fact, the rest of the movie doesn't support that scene at all: he defends her and protects her on a few occasions, why would he let her get raped (by someone else) if it wasn't against his will?
Further murkiness comes from the fact that the (first) rape is filmed like a love scene, at least in the "female gaze" aimed at Skarsgard. Not only does he have an incredible body, but he peels his button up shirt off slowly and sensually. That actually made me more uncomfortable, as the scene began to play like some fucked up rape fantasy for True Blood fans. It even felt like the movie was offering a counterpoint by having the cheerleader daughter be the aggressor towards full retard Jeremy, so when she is accidentally suffocated that yet again plays into the questionable theme of "she was asking for it".
Marsden taking on five armed men at the end did have, just like the original, several fist pumping moments. The fact that I'm probably not supposed to be fist pumping lends credit to how powerful this story is even when it's diluted. The filmmakers at work here, however, did not have the grace or gumption to handle this material.
