"Let the Right One In"
Sep. 28th, 2010 11:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pacificpikachuOn the urging of ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
archaneah, I watched a Swedish film called "Let the Right One In". And it was utterly fantastic!
I'm going to be vague in any observations I make because I think you should all go and watch it for yourselves, while reading as little about the story as possible beforehand. Don't even read a synopsis or any reviews if you can help it! It'll be all the more powerful that way, I promise. Feel free to skip my babbling below if you want, too--it's really not interesting anyway unless you've seen the movie.
(Just as a note so you can decide whether to download or not, it is R-rated, has some violence/gore and some non-graphic child nudity, and horror themes. Just figured I'd bring those things up in case any of that makes the movie unwatchable/not at all of interest for whatever reason.)
This is the torrent I downloaded: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4481747/Let.the.Right.One.In.LIMITED.SUBBED.READNFO.DVDSCR.XviD-SAPHiRE
First off, the artistry in this film is amazing! In a subtle way, though. The bleak color palette, the framing, the careful obscuring of most of the violence (makes it far more powerful, in my opinion), how pale the main character is, and just the coldness of it all. It's a lonely film and it looks the part very well. I ate it up visually, making sure to enjoy each shot. I thought the use of windows, doors, and mirrors in this movie was just incredible! They were everywhere and it worked well both visually and symbolically.
It was nice to see a film that takes such a tired, overdone, and (to be frank) by now downright boring subject and makes it poignant, fascinating, and horrible again. I've said for a long time I doubted I'd like a story on this subject, but I take that back for this one. :D (In general, opinion still stands, because most of these movies really are awful.) It's fairly grounded for the type of film it is, and I appreciate that. It's matter-of-fact, hardly overdramatized, and that gives it its own power because what you feel is not from melodrama, but from the situations themselves. The acting is superb and understated, especially considering the age of the two mains.
I think it's interesting how ambiguous many things are left in the movie. That's not to say it doesn't wrap up things or that it's just left completely up in the air or anything of the sort, but a lot of it is open to interpretation. The movie does not lead you to one particular judgment or another on things that are usually presented in a much more black-and-white way, especially in Hollywood movies. Is this a love story, or is one of the characters using the other? (I'll attest I see it as more of the first, but I can definitely see why some would say it's the second.) How did Hakan and Eli meet, and what kind of relationship do they have? Will Oskar end up like him, decades later? The morality of any of the given actions of the characters is left reasonably neutral--it's easy to see and understand both sides of the story even when you are horrified by what's going on on-screen.
There are a lot of very memorable scenes. The climax scene of the movie was so unique and suspenseful and amazing! It's both disturbing and heartwarming at the same time. I loved the final scene, too.
This movie is fairly slow in pace and a few people (I skimmed some online reviews after watching the movie) said they felt like some of it should have been edited out, but I disagree. I felt like it all fit together nicely, and actually, when the credits started rolling I was wishing for more! Not because I didn't feel that was a good place to conclude it, because it really was, but because I found it enchanting and didn't want it to end.
Also, there are some darkly humorous and even downright bizarre scenes in this movie in addition to the deeper stuff. It's arguable whether the more humorous scenes were good/helped lighten the mood a little, or too jarring and weird. I'm kind of split. I don't feel like the movie suffered as a result of them but at the same time they were odd to say the least.
Anyway, if anyone else decides to watch (and you should!) please come and discuss/let me know what you think? Either in comments or your own entry. :D Thanks so much for recommending KK, I really did love it and now I want to watch it again, after given some time to forget it a little so there's more impact.
I think I may pick up the translated novel sometime, though it'll probably be a while because I don't like reading books and seeing movies right back-to-back because then I'm comparing instead of just enjoying each for what they are.
Apparently Hollywood is doing a remake of this movie. WHY? I can't say I'm even interested in seeing it. Why Hollywood feels the need to take already perfectly amazing movies and make awful adaptations of them, I do not know. It's one thing if the movie is incredibly old or something, but taking foreign films and remaking them at their whims? Pass, please. :/
archaneah, I watched a Swedish film called "Let the Right One In". And it was utterly fantastic!I'm going to be vague in any observations I make because I think you should all go and watch it for yourselves, while reading as little about the story as possible beforehand. Don't even read a synopsis or any reviews if you can help it! It'll be all the more powerful that way, I promise. Feel free to skip my babbling below if you want, too--it's really not interesting anyway unless you've seen the movie.
(Just as a note so you can decide whether to download or not, it is R-rated, has some violence/gore and some non-graphic child nudity, and horror themes. Just figured I'd bring those things up in case any of that makes the movie unwatchable/not at all of interest for whatever reason.)
This is the torrent I downloaded: http://thepiratebay.org/torrent/4481747/Let.the.Right.One.In.LIMITED.SUBBED.READNFO.DVDSCR.XviD-SAPHiRE
First off, the artistry in this film is amazing! In a subtle way, though. The bleak color palette, the framing, the careful obscuring of most of the violence (makes it far more powerful, in my opinion), how pale the main character is, and just the coldness of it all. It's a lonely film and it looks the part very well. I ate it up visually, making sure to enjoy each shot. I thought the use of windows, doors, and mirrors in this movie was just incredible! They were everywhere and it worked well both visually and symbolically.
It was nice to see a film that takes such a tired, overdone, and (to be frank) by now downright boring subject and makes it poignant, fascinating, and horrible again. I've said for a long time I doubted I'd like a story on this subject, but I take that back for this one. :D (In general, opinion still stands, because most of these movies really are awful.) It's fairly grounded for the type of film it is, and I appreciate that. It's matter-of-fact, hardly overdramatized, and that gives it its own power because what you feel is not from melodrama, but from the situations themselves. The acting is superb and understated, especially considering the age of the two mains.
I think it's interesting how ambiguous many things are left in the movie. That's not to say it doesn't wrap up things or that it's just left completely up in the air or anything of the sort, but a lot of it is open to interpretation. The movie does not lead you to one particular judgment or another on things that are usually presented in a much more black-and-white way, especially in Hollywood movies. Is this a love story, or is one of the characters using the other? (I'll attest I see it as more of the first, but I can definitely see why some would say it's the second.) How did Hakan and Eli meet, and what kind of relationship do they have? Will Oskar end up like him, decades later? The morality of any of the given actions of the characters is left reasonably neutral--it's easy to see and understand both sides of the story even when you are horrified by what's going on on-screen.
There are a lot of very memorable scenes. The climax scene of the movie was so unique and suspenseful and amazing! It's both disturbing and heartwarming at the same time. I loved the final scene, too.
This movie is fairly slow in pace and a few people (I skimmed some online reviews after watching the movie) said they felt like some of it should have been edited out, but I disagree. I felt like it all fit together nicely, and actually, when the credits started rolling I was wishing for more! Not because I didn't feel that was a good place to conclude it, because it really was, but because I found it enchanting and didn't want it to end.
Also, there are some darkly humorous and even downright bizarre scenes in this movie in addition to the deeper stuff. It's arguable whether the more humorous scenes were good/helped lighten the mood a little, or too jarring and weird. I'm kind of split. I don't feel like the movie suffered as a result of them but at the same time they were odd to say the least.
Anyway, if anyone else decides to watch (and you should!) please come and discuss/let me know what you think? Either in comments or your own entry. :D Thanks so much for recommending KK, I really did love it and now I want to watch it again, after given some time to forget it a little so there's more impact.
I think I may pick up the translated novel sometime, though it'll probably be a while because I don't like reading books and seeing movies right back-to-back because then I'm comparing instead of just enjoying each for what they are.
Apparently Hollywood is doing a remake of this movie. WHY? I can't say I'm even interested in seeing it. Why Hollywood feels the need to take already perfectly amazing movies and make awful adaptations of them, I do not know. It's one thing if the movie is incredibly old or something, but taking foreign films and remaking them at their whims? Pass, please. :/
