Let the Right One In

2008 vampire movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: Poor Oskar. He's underdeveloped, has goofy hair even for a Swedish kid, and is getting bullied at school. Luckily for him, an androgynous vampire named Eli moves in next door. He befriends her, sharing a Rubik's cube and having boring conversations. When the old dude who collects blood for her gets himself caught, apparently because he's an idiot, Eli's relationship with Oskar deepens and she convinces him to stand up for himself. Then, they have more boring conversations, occasionally through a wall using Morse code.

A handful of scenes in Let the Right One In (a title I don't fully understand, by the way) are beautifully and artistically shot and effectively creepy. The climax is especially startling and effective, a very inventive shot that leaves just enough to the imagination and ends up more shocking because of it. This movie has a consistent tone that I really liked, and for the most part, the children chosen for the roles do a terrific job. I just don't think this movie is consistently great. It doesn't really add up to much at all. The story's flimsy, and the characters don't have a lot of depth, instead working more as types than anything else. There are a few scenes where there was an obvious attempt to shock me (artistically!) instead of allowing the story to unfold naturally, and they were ultimately more of a distraction than anything else. A subplot involving an infected woman seemed unnecessary and really really silly, especially during a scene involving a bunch of cats that I think might be the funniest thing I see all year. The end of that subplot was actually pretty funny, too. I also had trouble connecting with the characters despite the good acting. I'll admit that there might be a vampire bias at play here, but I do think that's the reason why some of this seemed a little derivative and possibly why some of the characters seemed flat. This is a beautiful enough movie. In fact, it's really really beautiful. But it's also pretty pretentious and a little shallow. The goth kids would all love it though!

This was recommended by Cory, a former goth kid.

7 comments:

cory said...

I agree with all the positive points you make, and take some issue with the others.

I think it is beautiful with several incredible scenes (the pool scene and the ice-lake field trip, especially). The ending is amazing and ties everything together. He will becaome just like the man who died for her. That man may have been just like the boy, and that makes the flm powerfully tragic. Some of the dialogue is minimal, but I never found it boring. Did you watch with subtitles? There is actually an issue with the subtitles because apparantly the studio that released te DVD found the cheapest person possible to do it, and a lot of people are angry because they are different from the original (anything would be better than the awful dubbing, though).

"Let the Right One In" is very original for a vampire film, and was moving as well as shocking. I'm sorry you didn't like it more, but thanks for giving it a try. An 18.

cory said...

Replacement: "Island of Lost Souls" (you're going through these so fast I'd better get my Netflix in gear).

Shane said...

I don't speak the language, but it seemed like a lot of the language was off...I figured it was some sort of error involving lazy translations. I didn't penalize for that though.

I guess the parallels between Eli's first (or forty-second) guy who took care of her and Oskar are interesting, but it just wasn't enough for me. I liked the movie fine. After looking around a bit, it seems that everybody else likes the movie a lot more than me. I would have put this in the "future cult classic" category before "artistic accomplishment" but whatever. I'm glad I watched it, so thanks for the recommendation. I'm going to tell anonymous to check it out because I think he'll like it more than me.

Shane said...

RE: the replacement...

Are we talking about the 1930's version? I assume you're not talking about the one to be released in 2011 because I won't be able to see that (probably brilliant) version for a while.

l@rstonovich said...

I think you were having a bad day these ratings are too low.

cory said...

Yes, if you need clarification, it is the 1932 version which you have(Charles Laughton's first starring role).

Shane said...

Every day is a bad day when you have to go in and try to educate the (m)asses...

And the ratings? No, they were perfect!