After much unregistered lurking....

[Richard]

...I decided to step out of the shadows and introduce myself. My name is Richard and I currently reside in sunny Florida. Where do I begin? Well, as the consummate movie buff, I am always looking for the outside the box foreign, indie, art house film to gush about. I stumbled upon Let The Right One In on a boring Saturday while listening to Tilda Swinton discuss her five favorite films on Rotten Tomatoes.com. I don't really consider myself a Tilda fan, but I certainly respect her talent and thus her opinion. (I still say Cate Blanchett should have won Best Supporting Actress in I'm Not There over Tilda in Michael Clayton, but I digress). She mentioned Let The Right One In and I immediately looked up the Rotten Tomatoes score. WOW! A whopping 98%!!

I was quite eager to see this. I was expecting a dark, morbidly entertaining horror movie that would make me smile with glee the way only a good horror movie can.,,,Let The Right One In failed WONDERFULLY in all the expectations I had going into this movie. If I may...I would like to share my impressions and how I guess I became...infected?

I was instantly struck by the stark simplicity of the opening. The musical score or lack of it sparked my attention immediately. I don't mind the vampire genre per se, but I have grown quite tired of the horror movie cliche's. The cliche's usually start right with opening credits. We always are treated with the soft music that gradually builds up to a bombastic finish as the movie title slowly appears on the screen as blood drips from the letters. Can't you almost see it?
The cinematography kept my attention and I realized that this was going to be a more arthouse film approach. It felt almost like a Kieslowski film or maybe even Igmar Bergman as we see a lonely, awkward boy standing before the window with his hand reached out. Not a single word was uttered, but his isolation is clearly established. I don't know how to explain it, but as the mood for me was established, I suddenly felt myself not in the mood for a gory horror film. At one point, I was almost tempted to stop the movie and watch a Godart film. It put me in this quiet, not entirely unpleasant feeling of melancholy. I stuck with it, however and it certainly didn't let me down.

I have to say, the pairing of these two leads was just about the best casting I have seen in a very long time. They both captured that almost goofy, awkward phase all kids struggle with at that age. My main issue with many child actors is that the really good ones are TOO good. They come off as these brilliantly precocious youngsters far ahead of their time. Sure, that is entertaining and fun to watch. But, it's not very realistic. I'll take Lena's awkward silence or Kare's goofy grin over a well executed cry from a Chloe Moretz any day of the week. When you are 12 years old, you are not always comfortable in your own skin. Maybe these two kids are acting prodigies or maybe the brilliant director captured the awkwardness they felt from being in front of a camera and utilized it brilliantly. Who knows,I simply know I was completely sold and utterly invested in both characters immediately.

The movie was a brilliant exposition in contrasts. On a superficial level we have this light and darkness. Fair haired boy who is so isolated, he has created his own little world to inhabit. Then we have this dark haired girl who is isolated in a world she has no choice but to inhabit. Two preteens marginalized by the rest of the world and almost seemingly resigned in their fate stumble across each other. Perhaps that is not the most original of premises in a movie. But, I don't think I have ever seen in it a vampire film or executed so brillantly.

The pacing is slow, but never boring. The film never insults our intelligence with musical cues or silly closeups. It unfolds in front of us the way the images in our minds unfold when we read a story. That was very signficant to me, because I immediately felt I was watching a fairy tale albeit a dark one.

The film doesn't try to hide anything and yet it doesn't get silly with the standard vampire fare either. It almost treats the whole concept of being a vampire as an infliction. Eli is just a child who has a disease that Oskar is completely clueless about. As most kids are when they meet, they are coy, standoffish and mildly aloof. Oskar is actually talking to another human being that is acknowledging his existence for once and Eli is talking to someone that is seemingly oblvious to hers. I was so enraptured with them both by the time she solved the Rubiks cube.

Their scenes together are so teeth achingly sweet together. It never got sappy or over the top. It just tiggered emotions and memories in me at that age. The purest love story imaginable was unfolding before my eyes...and I wanted more.

Scenes that melted me into a puddle include: when he first hugged her after she got sick from eating the candy. Her reaction brought tears to my eyes. He was probably the first creature that hugged in almost 200 years. The scene when she comes into the window and crawls into his bed. In American cinema, a director would have been too chicken shit to do this scene because of the controversial implications. There is absolutely nothing sexual when she traces her finger along his arm and when they hold hands...

The acting of these two kids was as good as any I have ever seen. I thought it so cute when she got out of the shower and she tried to awkwardly bob her head to music.

The violence was well done. Never over the top and never violence for the sake of violence and because such a strong character development was established and the emotional tone was set, I really felt the impact and the horrorfying implications of the violence. Most American horror films show someone getting thier head chopped off with a fountain of blood as we munch on our popcorn and praise the special effects department and feel nothing.

The climax scene epitomizes this perfectly. I loved the implied violence. I loved that the director left it for us to figure out what happened. THe specific details of how she did what she did are irrelevant, because we the audience are just RELIEVED Eli showed up to rescue him. I literally wept when she pulled him out of the water and he smiled that goofy grin and then all we see are her eyes, smiling at him.

I just realized that I probably should stop here. I am rambling entirely too much. I will peruse this forum and discuss various facets of this film in the appropriate thread. I have just been starving to find an outlet to talk about what has become my favorite film of all time.

[DMt.]

Hello, Richard.

You'll be right at home here, I think.

Checked out the FA/FF yet?

Just watch out for that Lombo, a_heartless_bastard and Lord Morkus...these guys are ruthless, merciless heartwringers.

[TΛPETRVE]

Hey there, Richard, good to have another genuinely aff... er, infected here.

[gattoparde59]

Hello Richard and thanks for posting your impressions.

I was instantly struck by the stark simplicity of the opening. The musical score or lack of it sparked my attention immediately.

It is very striking. I don't think I have ever read anyone comment on that. There are many things in this movie that Hollywood directors would be too chicken-shit to do.

[thestich]

Hi Richard,

If you have not already done so, (I almost assume you have but cannot bring myself to NOT show this), check out the "..tale told by hands" by wolfchild:
http://let-the-right-one-in.com/woofy/4 ... -by-hands/

As mentioned by DMT, check out the FF by the way too over talented team.

Welcome to the infected. Boy do you have it bad!!!

[drakkar]

Hi, and welcome.

The musical score or lack of it sparked my attention immediately.

It's the only score I've bother to buy to this day, I've had it on my iAudio for almost a year now, still it feels like everything around me dissappears when I listen to it.

[OUTSIDER]

Welcome Aboard, Richard!

[hillerr]

Welcome.

Eli claims another victim. You now belong to Eli and there is no cure...(not that I want a cure!)

I love the soundtrack. Listen to it at least once a week.

[Harls]

Welcome Richard! From one ex-lurker to another!

[Wolfchild]

Welcome.

The film never insults our intelligence with musical cues or silly closeups.

I agree with you - if I understand correctly what you are saying. The music is not used to heighten any predictable efforts to make the audience jump in their seats. Nor is the score used to cover up the failings of the script or the director. Instead, the music is used to add a romantic emotional layer that is in counterpoint to the visual horror. The story is told with stark, unsentimental visuals. It is the music that carries on the romantic, emotional dialogue with the audience.

For example, when Oskar returns home after spending the night with Eli, he has just witnessed Lacke's demise under Eli's fangs, and in fact been kissed by lips with Lacke's blood still on them. You would expect him to be horrified, shocked, traumatized. However, as he closes the door to his room in his mother's face, it is the music that tells us what he is really feeling: he is feeling the loss of Eli. The full orchestral arrangement of Eli's Theme swells and takes center stage to lead us to feel Oskar's sense of being once again engulfed in loneliness at the loss of his only friend.

Another example is the scene where Oskar gets upside Conny's head with the pole. The look on Oskar's face is one of release, triumph, redemption... one of exhilaration at finally feeling himself to be something other than a victim of his world. However, the music that comes in over the audio is Oskar Strikes Back, a piece that conveys some foreboding and tension. It hints to the audience that the events on the screen are perhaps more ominous than they are auspicious.

Your comment prompted me to think this through, and I agree that the film's avoidance of the tired, cliched horror film soundtrack was a key component of its brilliance.

I love it when new people show up.