Let The Right One In
Directed by Tomas Alfredson
Reviewed by Rob Fatal
The comparison is inescapable if, however, completely unwarranted: Twilight is the novel-turned-vampire movie for the masses. The more refined pallet dines on the novel-turned-vampire movie Let the Right One In. While both films are about young-looking vampires and the angst-ridden, outcast adolescent who loves them, these films are night and day. To compare pop-candy like Twilight with the severe and confrontational nature of Let the Right One In is to compare apples to bananas or Tropic Thunder to Apocalypse Now. In a way, however, Let the Right One In needs to have such a comparison to push the film from its singular good status to its comparative excellent status. If this film came out at any other time it would turn heads and still be significant, but to come out a week apart from Twilight, an exercise in mind-numbing emo-porn, Let the Right One In soars, leaving an almost flawless film at its completion.
The film surrounds first and foremost, Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), a young tween who, at the film’s beginning, is emotionally detached from his peers who ridicule and ignore him. This is such a stereotypical character: the soft, mousey, bullied, quiet boy with no friends that this character easily could have gone into caricature territory. Brilliant cinematography from Hoyte Van Hoytema, direction from Alfredson and a beautifully paced performance from Hedebrant make Oskar believable to the audience if not totally empathetic. He is a deep-rooted boy with something fierce brewing inside of him.
It just so happens that the same day Oskar’s anguish comes to surface in an abandoned playground, a new neighbor Eli (Lina Leandersson) comes to play. Seemingly attracted by his anger and isolation, Eli befriends Oskar and immediately the tension begins to build onscreen both physically and psychologically. Leandersson as Eli brings an amazing character to life that fills the viewers mind with so many questions: who is she, where did she come from, what is her motive for taking on Oskar as a friend, is she using him, does she really love him, is she a harmless vampire stuck in adolescence or a cunning hunter recruiting a disciple who is desperate for attention? For such a young actress to bring such intensity and depth to an onscreen persona is truly amazing: Eli is sad, humorous, sensitive, mysterious, brutal, isolated and wise all at once.
The characters are so rich and fulfilling to watch that when the typical vampiristic acts take over the screen it is even more of a shock and adds even more depth to the characters we grow to engage in if not love. For example, one minute the director may have us watching Eli and Oskar awkwardly snuggling in bed and then cut to one of Eli’s un-dead victims committing suicide by setting herself on fire in a hospital bed. Through these juxtapositions Eli becomes an enigma that is almost impossible to unravel. In the end the symbolism in the film’s visuals and stellar performances all around make this film so rich and deep that seeing it once most certainly is not enough to take it all in and process it.
|
