Let Me In

So I actually got the once in a lifetime chance to see this movie as the opening film of the 2010 Fantastic Film Festival in Austin , TX . . . with the cast and crew in attendance! I’ll admit it -- I was a former skeptic of this movie. However, I have now transformed, and it happened not that long after the opening credits were projected on the screen. 

 

First we all took the ‘green blood oath’ and drank from our viles immediately after watching the head honchos of the festival parade around in skimpy Viking costumes and then listened to a beautiful rendition of the score of the movie from the Texas Boy's Choir; all leading up to this spectacular US premiere. This was personally my most anticipated movie for the fall. It soon became very obvious that I was in a room full of lovers of the original film, Let The Right One In, which ironically also debuted at the Fantastic Fest a few years back.

 

This movie was a remake of the original Swedish film -- or the American take on the book of the same name by John Lindvqist, depending on your opinion. It is directed by Matthew Reeves, acclaimed director of Cloverfield, and stars Chloe Moretz and Kodi-Smit-McPhee in the lead roles. Also bringing excellence and experience to the cast are Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins. 

Before seeing this film, I honestly didn’t understand why a remake was necessary, given the beautiful Swedish film that has barely had time to cool off from it’s own release. Nonetheless, I really wanted to see this film and was able to do so in any movie lover’s fantasy setting.

 

The story follows Owen, a 12 year old boy relentlessly and mercilessly tormented at school, as he befriends a girl, Abby, who moves in next door to his apartment. The pair start spending time together despite Abby’s warning that they can't become friends. Set on a backdrop of recent grisly murders, it doesn’t take long for Owen to realize that something’s different about Abby. Facts and homicides start piling up and Owen comes to the conclusion that his 12 year old best friend is actually a 200 year old vampire.

 

I know that unfortunately a lot of potential audiences are immediately turned off from the first mention of the ‘V’ word, given the recent storm of indulgent movies of similar premises. But I beg you, the one or two readers of this review, to look past that word and read on. This is a truly different story than others I’ve seen and it focuses on the relationship between these two characters. This movie differs in plot and climax than the original. Yes, there are some ‘ Hollywood ’ techniques employed; such as a non-linear timeline and an overzealous police officer character thrown into the mix. Matt Reeves, revealed during the Q&A that he wanted to focus solely on the relationship between the two characters and that was his reasoning for the scenes and characters that he scrapped from the original. He also revealed that he wanted to film to more in Owen's perspective and that was his motivation behind most of his choices. I’m a fan of that decision. One thing I felt with the first film was it was losing a little of its focus trying to follow the subplots, although this apparently was more in keeping with the book. Several scenes were changed but the important, and awesome, ones were kept true to the original, which I liked. So the plot ended up being very similar to the original but different enough to be unique. The dialogue was essentially the same, and almost word for word in some instances. We are also given more information into the characters than the previous film where a lot of it was up for interpretation without much explanation. Also, as a fellow Now & Later lover (yes, the candy), I really enjoyed that element.

 

The striking thing about this film was the beautiful artistic cinematographic elements. This was a highly stylized and artistic film, which I wasn’t expecting at all. Reeves put a lot of time and effort behind his angles and motives with the film. The macro focusing techniques used in the film were great and so beautiful. I loved how the mother’s face is never seen by the audience to symbolize Owen’s distance from his mother during this time in his life, although I think this same element could’ve been used for other characters he was distant from as well. There is a roll-over car crash sequence from the driver's perspective which is breathtakingly completed in -- get this -- a single shot! The whole time I was watching this sequence, I kept thinking ‘when’s it going to cut away?’, but it never did. This was the very first question off the bat during the Q&A and rightly so. I really like the passion behind this decision as it would’ve been a thousand times easier to just do a cutaway edit to a crash image and then cut back to the actors, but Reeves went all out to give us the best sequence in the movie, something I dare say Hitchcock would be proud of. The score was hauntingly beautiful, although a little too ominous at points for my liking. Something, I wasn’t a fan of was how they portrayed Abby during her vampiric fights. They employed growling and yellow eyes to possibly add to the horror element of the movie, but I would have just kept her as human as possible to emphasize the relationship and the loneliness of her character. In the original, there is some subtle growling but more of it is left to the audience, which is different from this film when it’s right there in full frame glory for us to see. That was just one thing I would’ve liked to see different, but it honestly didn’t detract much from the movie.I felt as though just a little too much emphasis was made trying to give this film horror and suspense which wasn't needed and I think just a byproduct of the natural Hollywood effect.

 

Chloe Moretz is fast becoming one of my favorite actresses, and she only reinforces it in this film. The fact that she really was 12 during the making just adds to the awesomeness that is her performance. It’s very probable that I am biased in making my next statement, however I enjoyed Chloe’s performance over the Swedish actress'. I felt like she was more human, which in my opinion adds to the story however apparently in the book  she is less human. However in the end, she once again really holds the film together with her performance (think Kick Ass). Kodi Smit-McPhee also did a really good job. He had less naivety than his Swedish predecessor, which I think is more believable in his circumstance. He was able to come off as a sympathetic character even when his actions are questionable. Elias Koteas and Richard Jenkins do good jobs with their characters, and especially with the latter. His character has a complex set of motivations and he pulled it off well.That was something all of these characters were able to do is to pull on the sympathy cord with the audience. Even though we were watching horrific actions taken by these characters, we felt for them. It's surprising when you realize that you're actually rooting for the stone cold serial killer and feel sorry for him when things don't go his way. It's some powerful stuff in this film.

 

I was very pleased with this film and now want to take back all of my criticisms before seeing it. It was uniquely different from Let The Right One In, but didn’t stray too far to be unrecognizable. It kept the beautiful pool, Rubiks cube, and hand cutting scenes that made the first so memorable. This film is definitely on the same level as the first. Better? Perhaps. Certainly is my preference as it deals mainly with the two characters. However, the first film had nothing to work on except for the book, which deserves respect. I think the main difference between the two films, was this dedicated more time to the main characters by eliminating minor characters and subplots out of the equation. Both were beautifully filmed movies, this one just had more time to spend on the cinematic elements. I didn’t find this movie overly scary or gruesome, it was simply more of a darker scarier dramatic piece about relationships and security. It also didn’t indulge in the vampire element, which makes it different from others of it’s kind. I’d highly recommend to everyone to see it during it’s upcoming limited release on October 1^st. “I’ll help you. – But you’re a girl. – I’m a lot stronger than you think I am” – Let Me In.