Directed by: Tomas Alfredson
Written by: John Ajvide Lindqvist
Cast: Kåre Hedebrant, Lina Leandersson, Per Ragnar, Henrik Dahl, Karin Bergquist
out of 5 stars
“Let the Right One In” wasn’t my favorite movie at Tribeca 2008, but it’s definitely the one that’s stuck with me. Adapting his own novel for the screen, writer John Ajvide Lindqvist fashions among the strangest coming-of-age stories ever, one that blends vampire lore with the pains of adolescence. “Let the Right One In” — which, by the way, refers to the belief that a vampire must be invited into the home of its victim — is neither a horror movie nor budding childhood romance, but, instead, a tale of loyalty and friendship that culls together elements of both those aforementioned genres.
Director Tomas Alfredson’s compositions are immaculate, his pacing and mood understated, with amusingly morbid undertones, and he holds back on the gore and violence, which unleash only in short but startling bursts when you least expect. That the violence and bloodshed is often only suggested adds to “Right One’s” creepy appeal.
The frigid, snowbound environs of a Swedish suburb is the perfect setting for Alfredson to punctuate the loneliness and alienation that 12-year-olds Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) and Eli (Lina Leandersson) feel everyday. At school, Oskar is picked on by bullies, and he finds a soulmate in Eli, a neighbor girl who lives with an old man whose sole purpose, we learn, is to collect blood for Eli to feed on. Alfredson doesn’t waste time establishing that Eli is a vampire — she attacks a neighbor and, later, his wife — but she can’t reveal her identity to sweet and trusting Oskar.
The scenes of Oskar’s victimization are palpably effective, so much so that we want to reach out and thrash the boy’s tormentors ourselves. At Eli’s urging, Oskar finally strikes back — a scene ripe with guilty delight for the viewer — and as Eli’s insatiable need for blood begins to cause havoc in the local community, it’s clear that these friends must either break up or stick it out together indefinitely and secretly. The kids’ dilemma becomes obvious, and that’s when Alfredson’s pacing begins to feel leaden, the humor bleeds dry, and the narrative becomes a slow-footed game of connect-the-dots.
“Let the Right One In” left me cold most where it settled for simplistic answers to a complex and co-dependent relationship. Alfredson and Lindqvist stay true to Eli’s vampire nature (meaning, reckless mutilation and gore are a routine part of life), but Oskar gives in too easily, rather than insist — as a teen coming into his own might — on negotiating a moral middle ground if their friendship is to go forward. Ultimately, all the fuss is only about how a vampire drops one “enabler” for another, when the film’s lovely, moody fabric suggested the potential for something more layered and soulful.
out of 5 stars
