Wednesday
26Nov2008
Movie Review - 'Let the Right One In'
Wednesday, November 26, 2008 at 12:38AM | Let the Right One In
Starring Kåre Hedebrant and Lina Leandersson  |
One
of the year's more alarming and most interesting films is about young outcasts,
one of them a vampire, who are connected by a strange love that neither one of
them fully comprehends. And no, that movie is not Twilight.
Let the Right One In has already leapt onto the list of the
top 250 films ever made at IMDB. Is it really that good? No, probably not, but it's surprising
just how good it is considering our cultural familiarity with bloodsuckers and how
little this strays from that path in order
to tell a complex and full story.The last great new invention in this genre was Night Watch, the Russian film by Wanted director Timur Bekmambetov. That film created an entirely different universe for vampires, making it so wildly unlike our reality that the real pleasure was awaiting whatever was next.
This movie doesn't have loads of special effects and never even explains how the vampire in the story comes to be. There is no backstory because we don't need one to tell this story. Eli (Lina Leandersson) tells her new neighbor that she is 12 years old "more or less." Her neighbor, a curious, sad boy name Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) is also 12. But that's where the surface similarities stop. He gets bullied at school and she sends her father out at night to gather gallons of blood for her to feast on.
Still, there is a magnetism and innocence between these two characters that definitively tells us they belong together, in whatever form that is for a vampire. It's strange that we had the chance to review Let the Right One In in the same week as Australia and Milk; those two large-scale, star-driven studio movies don't do enough to prove to us that their lovers should be driven towards each other. They simply are together. Selling a love story requires more.
Eli and Oskar understand the pain the other feels, even if they don't understand love and they don't understand what makes them so different. Eli has probably been through this before, though. She's aware of the danger that getting close to Oskar brings. And, as she says, she's been 12 for a long time. But Oskar only knows that for the first time, someone cares about him and he cares about someone else.
Director Tomas Alfredsson has chosen two brand new faces to shoulder the load for this film. Neither Leandersson nor Hedebrant has a professional screen credit prior to this film. That might seem risky, but it's probably the smartest decision a director could make for a film like this, because he doesn't have to spend any time coaching the actors out of the kids. He can get more genuine responses and more uncertainty. In short, he can show us children, not child stars. They're both exceptional and Leandersson's extremely vulnerable and sorrowful vampire will stay with you for many, many years.
Let the Right One In, if you couldn't guess by the names of its cast and director, is a Swedish film. It looks and feels European, although there will soon be an American remake. And while the film is not as blunt as a similar film would be if it emerged from one of the major studios, its almost unsettling atmosphere is a plus. There are some strange shots, bizarre sequences, and unusual bits of dialogue. And the film's climax features one of those signature shots in cinema. It's simply brilliant, and a hell of a capper to a film lies in wait for nearly two hours, waiting to go for your throat.
Colin Boyd | Permalink | in Foreign Film, Horror Movies, Reviews | Print Article | Email Article | 5 Comments | Share Article
Reader Comments (5)
thans for your review,I sincere looking forward it,and i bet it sure touch me somehow.
I've been thinking about this one for a while. I fear that the almost unanimous praise will set me up for disappointment? It's probably the kind of film you should see with no preconceptions and be blown away by? Or will it handle the hype?
I think the outlook of the person accompanying Eli can be interpreted in many ways. I would like to think of him as an older version of Oskar who simply got old while Eli remained as she was.
Vamsi -
That's obviously one interpretation. I don't honestly believe he was Eli's father, but it's the easiest way to explain it to a newbie.
Lengthy -
I don't think you'd be disappointed, but I doubt it will blow you away. You don't seem the type.
Thats the way I interpreted it. Eli's "father" was just an older version of her Oskar. It would only make sense as her father would probably be a vampire as well, if that were really the case.
The movie was beautiful, especially the camera work. They took alot of time with this, and put alot of heart into it. It deserves to be on the IMDB list of the top 250.