Let Me In (4/5 Stars) October 6, 2010

“I must be gone and live or stay and die. Love, Abby” 
That’s a quote from Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ a play that a twelve-year-old boy named Owen is studying at his school. It is used though by Abby in a post-it left by Owen’s bedside after a chaste night the two spent together. But it isn’t simply a sentimental romantic line. It literally is true. If Abby stayed with Owen until the dawn, the light of the sun would cause her flesh to catch fire and she would be burnt to a crisp, dead. Abby is a vampire. She’s also twelve, but she has been twelve for a very long time. 




“Let Me In” is a remake of a haunting Swedish horror movie titled, “Let the Right One In.” (see previous review). Watching this movie made me proud to be an American. We did it. Go USA. ‘Let Me In’ is on the same par and arguably even a little better than the original. The writer/director Matt Reeves has done an admirable job of keeping all that was great about the first movie especially its tone, atmosphere, and deliberate pacing. But he has also added many little details here and there that round out the character of Owen, makes clearer the relationship between Abby and her “father,” and creates much more effective scenes of violence. On top of that, we have two great performances by Chloe Moretz (500) Days of Summer) and Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Road). But let me be clear. I don’t recommend watching “Let Me In,” instead of “Let the Right One In.” I recommend you see them both. They are especially interesting from a craft perspective. Effective storytellers need not always agree on exactly how to tell a story. The differences between these two movies are not better or worse. They are simply a matter of taste. The story itself is worthy of multiple interpretations. Just like Shakespeare. I wouldn’t mind seeing another remake of this movie. 

Poor Owen. He lives in suburban nowhere and it is the midst of winter. His parents are going through a divorce and spend all of their time arguing with each other on the phone. The class bully and his buddies have singled him out for ritual punishment. He has no friends. When he isn’t at school and in a state of perpetual terror, he is at home completely alone and bored out of his mind. He spends his free time binging on “Now and Later” candy and acting out revenge fantasies in the mirror. And then Abby moves in next door. She shows up one day in the empty and dreary courtyard where Owen usually sits alone. This is an Event. It’s not exactly love at first. It’s more like Robinson Crusoe finding Friday. She is another kid his “age,” seemingly the only other one in the entire apartment complex. And she is quiet and she is sad. Just like Owen. Perhaps they could be friends. 

I remarked in my review of “Let the Right One In,” that the story reminded me of Hitchcock in that it keeps the audience in a state of moral twilight. Watching this movie, you can’t tell if what you are hoping will happen is the right thing to be hoping for. Owen as a character couldn’t be more sympathetic. You can’t help but feel for the kid. Abby, by definition, is a mass murderer. But strangely, because she is Owen's only friend, she is also sympathetic simply by association. In one scene, Owen asks Abby if she will go steady with him. I heard several people in the theater audibly sigh as if they were watching the cutest scene in the world. But pay attention to the implications and take notice of your feelings when you watch this. Sure, it’s nice that Owen has fallen in love, but is it a good thing for him to fall in love with a vampire who needs blood to live? The single best scene in the movie (which isn’t in the original) comes shortly after Owen realizes that not only is Abby a vampire but that her “father” was his age when he first met her. Owen calls up his own father and asks him, “Do you think there is such a thing as evil? Can people be evil?” His father is distracted and less than helpful but take notice of what Owen is really asking: Can the only person in the world who is kind to me be completely bad? Would you be able to forgive a killer if they were your only friend? What about the last scene? Is it mass murder? Is it an act of kindness? Could it possibly be both? How do you feel about what happened? How should you feel about it? 

The A-list for children movie stars is a very short list. Child Actors are understandably notorious for not being incredibly reliable or professional. So, a child who proves that they can carry a movie is special indeed. Here, both Chloe and Kodi have proven they are very capable of pulling off challenging roles. (This romance is iconic. I wouldn’t mind having the picture shown above as a wall poster.) Every casting director who has a difficult part for a child will surely notice them. In fact, Chloe has been cast as the lead in Martin Scorsese’s next movie. Welcome to the A-List.

Cloverfield 02/09/08

This movie can be summed up in one word: Ingenious. Just the concept is a fantastic idea and I'm sure the creators were excited when they finally set out to make the film. This is a moment in cinematic history. For the first time ever we have a blend of the grainy images of camcorders we are all familiar with and multimillion dollar special effects. Combined they prove to make a monster movie something it has never been before: Basically Human and very Personal. 

Now how could a story about a gigantic monster descending on New York City be personal? Haven't we seen countless movies about large scale disasters (Armageddon, Godzilla) that prove the contrary. This movie solves this problem by not being about the monster, which stays in the background mostly the entire time. It isn't about how they plan to kill the big monster or theories on how the monster could have gotten there. This film doesn't care about that because it doesn't matter. Basically the monster is a MacGuffin, just a device to get the film rolling and into what it does care about. And that is a quest by Rob and his "twentysomething" friends to rescue the woman he loves but hasn't shared his feelings toward. She is trapped in an apartment building and they travel into a very dangerous situation to rescue her. Does that sound heroic? Yes it is. 

Given that we are suspending our disbelief in order to pretend that a big monster is attacking the city, the rest of the story is realistic. The camcorder is jumbled and bounces around alot when people are running, the characters aren't exaggerated or do superhuman feats. They don't find the secret weakness in the monster and defeat the beast themselves. At one point in the movie, a characters mom calls (Something all moms due during a crisis). That's when I knew I was watching a different movie.

They made an intelligent decision when they cast the movie with unknowns. This is but one of many techniques that help personalize the movie. We don't feel like were watching a blockbuster. There is plenty in here you haven't seen. Bless my heart, but this movie is also surprisingly romantic. The ending is perhaps the most touching I think a monster movie can be.