Let The Right One In

In today’s take on vampires, it can be hard to remember that vampires are supposed to be monsters.  It can be hard to remember that they are supposed to be threatening and dangerous.  It can be hard to remember that they are supposed to feed on human blood. 

            Let the Right One In is like a breath of fresh air in reminding us that these creatures of the night are killers.  On the surface, Let the Right On In is similar to Twilight. A young, ordinary person intrigues a mysterious vampire and slowly they fall in love.  However, Let the Right One In is a much darker look at the world and the people in it.  It deals with issues such as bullying and pedophilia.  It is very violent and does not hold back in its portrayal of murder.  Yet somehow in the midst of all this horror, it finds away to be a touching love story, in a really twisted way.  That’s what I love about this movie.  Because the world can be a horrible place, but you can still find genuine love in it.

            Let the Right One In is about a 12 year old boy named Oskar.  He is regularly bullied at school and dreams of getting revenge on his tormentors but he does not have the courage to go through with it.  Soon, Eli moves in next door with her adult caretaker.  The two strike up a friendship that blossoms into something more.  Eli encourages Oskar to fight back and Oskar shows Eli how to just enjoy someone’s company.  As time goes by, Oskar discovers that Eli is not the girl he thought she was.

I understand the romanticism of vampires.  I am a huge fan of Buffy and Angel.  This movie itself is a love story.  It’s just that I feel that vampires are getting too tame.  Like dogs instead of wolves.  Eli, despite her love for Oskar, is still a monster.  She will kill to survive and there are several points in the film where she truly looks like an animal. 

I like the fact that it is a story on a small scale too.  It does not get deep into the mythology of vampires or any other supernatural beings.  It really does not go into Eli’s back story either.  These things are not really relevant to the story about two people finding each other and loving each other through all obstacles.  This is a story about the world that they wrap themselves up in.  This is about Eli trying to eat real food because Oskar wants her to.  This is about Oskar giving Eli his Rubik’s cube.  This is about children living in a horrific world. 

            After researching the film and the book, there are a few things that I wish the director (Tomas Alfredson) had been clearer on.  There were a few things in the film that I never understood until I went and read what their purpose was.  This ranged from who certain characters were to what certain shots were supposed to mean.  I will not get into the specifics because I do not want to spoil anything important.  Much of the film is open to interpretation.  And this review is simply my interpretation.

            Its flaws aside, as far as vampire films go, this one ranks pretty near the top.  There is something so eerie about the whole thing.  I got the sense that even before Eli showed up; Oskar already lived in an unsafe world.  The bullies constantly harassing him, his seemingly disinterested parents, and the way the film was almost always surrounded by darkness and a sense of unrest.  For children so young, the two leads (Kare Hedebrant as Oskar and Lina Leandersson as Eli) do a remarkable job carrying a pretty adult story.  I highly recommend this one

Full Circle

There's really no point to this.  I was just feeling reflective last night.

Last night, I saw a play that I hadn’t seen since I was six years old.  It was also the first play I had ever seen.  I remember not knowing what a play would be like, thinking it would be boring, and not wanting to go.  My dad made me go anyway.  And couple of hours later, I was completely in love with the theater.  The show was called “The Foreigner.”  It’s about a shy man who is staying at a lodge for a few days and to get out of having to talk to the other guests; he pretends he does not speak English.  Of course he overhears conversations that he shouldn’t and conflict and hilarity ensue.  It’s a very slapstick play.  What’s a better way to get a six year old’s attention than slapstick?

            The theater was stuck in my head from that moment on.  I had always loved movies and television, but this was a whole new area of entertainment for me.  Since then, I have been involved in a few productions and the feeling is wonderful.  Getting to see a show start from complete scratch is amazing.  You start on an empty stage wearing your normal clothes and reading from a script.  Within about a month a complete fictional world has been created around you.  That process feels like more of an accomplishment than getting a good grade on some meaningless test.  I sort of left it behind when I started high school but my love for it will never die.  The theater has helped shape me and I am glad that I got to go back and see the show that started it all.

Due Date

In 2009, Todd Phillips proved himself to be a good director with The Hangover instead of merely a mediocre one that I thought he was.  While his latest outing Due Date is not as good as The Hangover, it is a perfectly good way to spend $8.00. 

            Due Date benefits greatly from having such a talented cast.  Robert Downey Jr., one of the most talented and charismatic actors around, stars as Peter Highman, a man desperate to get across country in time for the birth of his first child.  Zach Galifianakis also stars as Ethan Tremblay, the man Peter has to put up with in order to get home.  The movie also reunites Downey Jr. with two former co-stars, Michelle Monaghan and Jamie Foxx.  Unfortunately, Monaghan is not given much to work with, but the guys all turn in funny performances.  Foxx has a pretty small role as a friend of Peter’s and his wife.  This might be the most fun I have ever had watching the guy and it was only for about ten minutes of screen time.

            As a buddy road movie, this one is not terribly original, but it works.  There are a few jaw droppingly funny moments that should not be funny, but they are.  The scene with Juliette Lewis’s character is a great example at that.  It will make you question if Peter should even be a father.  Aside from the laughs, there is a lot of heart in this movie as well.  Ethan is trying to deal with the death of his father throughout the movie and carries his ashes around in a coffee can. No matter how insufferable Ethan gets, Peter is always sympathetic to his loss.  That sympathy is the only thing that keeps him from running away from him as fast as he can at times.  And though Ethan is not all that different from his Hangover character Alan, Galifianakis does get to play some dramatic scenes with regards to the character’s father’s death and he pulls it off nicely.

            The laughs are not as constant as I was hoping they would be, but they are definitely there and some of them are truly inspired.  I never would have thought anything could make Two and a Half Men funny again, but leave it to Todd Phillips I suppose.  The soundtrack is worth noting as well.  Just like with The Hangover I had the music stuck in my head after I left the theater.

            My main complaint about this film is that I feel the climax is, well, anticlimactic.  I was expecting a bit more conflict as the guys reached the final leg of their journey.  But, that did not ruin my overall enjoyment of the film.  The characters are likeable, which I feel is a strength in Todd Phillips movies.  The movie is well paced and does not drag itself along.  I do want to give it another viewing, because maybe the reason I think it fall short of The Hangover is because I had no expectations for that movie at all and it blew me away and this time around I was expecting a lot.  Still, I had a good time watching this movie.  Downey Jr. and Galifianakis are always a pleasure.