A Swedish romance and horror film based on the eponymous novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, who also wrote the script.
Let the Right One In tells the story of the friendship between Oskar, a 12y.o. weak sweet boy bullied at school, and Eli, a 12y.o. strong lonely vampire girl who moves to Oskar's building in Stockholm.
If vampires existed in the modern world, how would they live? Most probably as they are portrayed in this movie. It is the believability of the story what will appeal to people who usually hate vampire movies, like me. The story does not focus on the gory part of the life of a Vampire, but on the physical and emotional needs they have to survive and how they make do in the modern world. At the same time, the vampire theme glues well with a story that would have been terrific per se as it approaches with honesty the sins of modern urban society: isolation, loneliness, craving for affection, miscommunication, and friendship/love as redemption. The struggle of Oskar at school, his alienation from his divorced parents, the struggle of Eli to be loved and have a normal life, her guilt at having to kill to survive, are equally believable and intriguing.
The appeal and success
of the movie are indebted in equal parts to the script and the terrific
performances of the leading young actors Kåre Hedebrant as Oskar, Lina
Leandersson as Elis, and Patrik Rydmark as the leader of the bullies.
The leading couple has great chemistry on camera in part because both
kids have a physique that mixes innocence and strength, and they
complement each other physically.
The atmosphere is fantastic - peaceful and menacing at the same time. One of the best points of the cinematography is that it is rarely "dark", but virginal white or very luminous, even the night shots, so most of the clichés of the genre are turned over and revamped, leaving those elements strictly necessary for the narrative of the genre to work in the 21st century. The movie has some funny and shocking scenes, too, the one with the cats and the burning in hospital among the most memorable.
An excellent romantic horror film, with a terrific script, good performances and a great atmosphere, which will captivate both lovers and haters of the genre. An American remake has recently been made of this film, also with very good reviews, but who wants to watch an imitation, the original being brilliant?
This is the final instalment of the Millennium Trilogy, and the one in which we finally see Lisbeth Salander confronting those people who unjustly abused her since her childhood. The movie focus on her recovery in hospital, and in the investigation of the Millenium team and the Police to uncover and capture those people who formed The Section, a team of secret agents involved in dark operations and directly responsible for Lisbeth's abuses and jailing.
Like the 2nd movie, this one feels like a TV film not a proper movie. However, this lifts up a bit, mostly because the investigation is very intriguing, and the performance of some of the the actors is very good. We hate some of them with gusto, especially the evil psychiatrist and paedophile Dr. Peter Teleborian who is very well played by Anders Ahlbom. However, the actors playing evil Zalachenko (Georgi Staykov) and his son Dragan (Michalis Koutsogiannakis), overact and underact respectively, and, like in the 2nd movie, they are a caricature of a character. Michale Nyquist and Lena Hendre are still good in their respective performances, especially the latter, but Annika Hallin outshines them with her fresh and down to earth performance as Lisbeth's lawyer Annika Giannini.
Noomi Rapace shines once more, although her character is played down in this movie. Despite the fact the viewer cares about Lisbeth and wants her free and her abusers jailed, there is a lack of empathy with her, mostly because the way the character is portrayed in this movie. The fact that the movie shows not much about her, leads the viewer to feel emotionally detached from her, who appears cold and calculator, lacking of emotion and of any type of kindness, and stripped of the soft core she showed in the 1st movie. The focus of the movie is not Lisbeth's past, but her abusers, and the investigation.
The relationship unfolding between Mikael and Erika is badly explored and explained, especially because Mikael still seems to have a crush on Lisbeth. We do not know what happens to Lisbeth to pass from almost falling in love with Mikael in the first movie to completely ignoring him in this one. Most of the viewers have not read the books, and they will barely understand some of the unfolding events in this last instalment of the series.
The court trial is very entertaining and well performed, although hurriedly developed.
The end of the trilogy is deflated and has no closure. It feels and looks like the end of a TV episode that is to be continued. The director and scriptwriter had already chopped up and hidden many facts that were in the novel, so why not taking a further risk to give the trilogy a good ending? They could have used what we know about Stieg Larsson's unfinished 4th book to do so. Stieg Larsson's unofficial website, summarises a bit what we could have expected from the 4th book:
"Aftonbladet has earlier published the news that the fourth book would take place in Canada, about 75 miles (120km) north of Sauchs Harbour on Banks Island. It is also told that the fourth script would mainly focus on Lisbet Salander, and how her personality changes when she starts to deal with her conflicts from the past. Her tattoos are explained and you are told that each and everyone represent a person who has hurt her throughout her life, both mentally and physically."
Instead, we are left with that sweet & sour taste of not knowing enough about Lisbeth and watching a movie that has no ending. On the other hand, the viewer is happy that there is no continuation, because the enthusiasm, freshness and rawness of the first movie are completely gone in this film.
The cinematography of Stockholm and rural Sweden is gorgeous. The series really makes you want to visit Sweden!
