Let The Right One In - 2008
by Tomas Alfredson
I wonder if a film starred by and
[for the most part] taken under the
point of view of a child
could end up not being
"a child´s movie" per Se.
This is precisely the ambiguity
in "Let the Right one In".
The picture itself is
as cold as Sweden,
in fact it presents itself
like a winter storm,
in the sense that it´s claustrophobic.
It offers no shelters, 'period'.
Our poor Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant)
is utterly stranded (isolated) and,
by the time the film makes us acquainted with
his existence, dreaming of revenge.
It´s noticeable that Kåre Hedebrant
hasn´t yet got all those
'classic technics of acting' down,
which made it all
a lot more intense
(and off course, in a few times,
a lot more denouncing,
[as in reminding us it was only a film type of thing])
and virtually a lot more like a regular child
than perhaps Dakota Fanning in the best of her
Marlon Brandon like talent in her time could be.
We learnt that from the Italians
and their Neo Realism
[artistic movement that
among other things alleges that
non experienced actors are in deed
a powerful addition to the 'realism'
(feeling of reality) of a film. ]
The "squeal like a pig" of his
[to illustrate] and the other important
performances he beautifully did
where convincing because
it wasn´t an 'OSKAR sequel'
but a Kåre Hedebrant´s one,
he played himself in the picture.
The dark atmosphere
enhanced mainly by its
'classic montage', works
as a Hitchcock picture
(as 90% of all well succeeded suspense films do),
mainly due to its similar
narratives properties such as the,
for the most part of the film, supremacy
of the bad guy and heavy use
of observer characters.
This classic, patient and '
undercovered' line of montage
here adopted, set the path to a
more realistic and consequently
stronger kind of horror, than
we normally get elsewhere,
"Let The Right One In" is pretty well dosed
for that matter, considering its
supernatural thematic and its recurrent usage
of special effects/tricks.
The core of our discomfort,
narratively speaking,
is the 'knot' of not
knowing the gender and
age of our cute vampire
Eli (Lina Leandersson) and this
is perhaps the greatest
thing about it all.
As one tries answering these questions
rationally, he´s bombed by cute Eli
and her graciousness, the now harbor
of lonely Oskar. This visual identity
is so explored that at times
she´s portrayed as 'attractive',
so to say, as an adult woman.
It´s just when this sweet little girl
is fully introduced that
the paradox comes to play,
The horror lies in
the controversy between
her physical/social features
and her monstrous
characteristics.
And that´s maximized a few times
when she appears 40-50 years
older, whenever the thirst for
blood is a theme,
due to a clever montage effect.
Coupled with that, only in an European
production, freer to experiment,
we´d be faced with such a singular shot
only 2 seconds long, that clearly
changed the whole film´s
perspective:
In a moment of cleverness,
Oskar victim of his own puberty
and curiosity, peeps through
a half open door while Eli
changes clothes, and discovers
a lack of gender so intriguing
that we are left wondering
if it is natural or man
provoked. 'What that heck is Eli?'
we think...
Apart from it being a film about bullying,
cold blood killing or split families
struggles, it´s a film
about children, and if that wasn´t
originally the plan it ended up that way.
The thing is, "Let the right one in"
in all its flaws,
is a film within a film.
One, less interesting one,
that deals of a horror story
and a much profound one
that explores the relationship
between a regular kid and
a heaven-knows-what-little-
girl-vampire.
Is with this little girl vampire, Eli
that we learn about love.
She´s an angel, at times administering
punishment and/or relief, sometimes
suffering intensely as to atone
for Oskar´s childlike [human like]
errors, and that without judging
nor criticizing him. She´s the one to occupy
the then vacant sit of "a mentor for Oskar",
a role that his father
had failed to perform for
non explicit reasons.
In a nutshell, she´s the missing link,
she´s home.
"Let the Right One In", if nothing else,
is a mature work, good enough
to dialogue with films such as
"Fargo" by Joe and Ethan Cohen, and
"Where the Wild Things Are" by Spike Jonse
without being looked
down to.
It is as stated a
Film within
a Film.
