Wednesday 28 January 2009

Låt den rätte komma in (Let the right one in) (2008) - movie review

The funny thing how two movies of the same subject - love story between a human and a vampire - are released at about the same time. And even funnier thing is, how different these two movies are from each other!

Let the right one in is nothing like Twilight. It is a Swedish film based on a Swedish novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the screenplay and it has been directed by Tomas Alfredson. It tells a story of a lonely, bullied 12-year-old school boy Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) who lives with her mother in a suburb of a small Swedish town and visits his father occasionally at his cabin outside the town.

Suddenly a strange, dark haired girl (Lina Leandersson) moves to the neighbour with her father. She introduces herself as Eli, and becomes an odd friend of Oskar - always meeting him outside after dark.


Strange deaths start to happen in the previously peaceful neighbourhood, but Eli's and Oskar's friendship gets deeper even though she tells him they should not be friends. For a little boy without friends a powerful vampire as an ally is a nice asset against the other boys.

Let the right one in is such a different vampire movie. It focuses on a perfectly traditional Swedish neighbourhood with perfectly traditional people - drunks, loners, working moms, lonely kids and gangs. And then there comes the vampire that changes the balance, dramatically.

The movie is dark and very grim, but it is not horror in the very sense. And it sees the world via the eyes of a pre-teenager. It is not a movie for children even though it's central characters are young in age. It is a story of loneliness and what loneliness can make you do. Desperate things.


Directed by Tomas Alfredson
Written by John Ajvide Lindqvist, based on his own novel
Cast Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson
IMDb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1139797/

No comments: