Let Me In

Well I'm just back from watching Let Me In with a coupla friends. Long time friends whom I've not met for over half a decade now. It's amazing that they still remember me. Anyway, 'nuff on me and more on the movie. I dare say that I really did appreciate it, and it's a rather decent remake.

Now, the narrative is largely the same as Let The Right One In, and it does stay reasonably faithful to the book's narrative even though a few key areas were significantly changed. In fact, I am struck by how the director managed to reproduce choice phrases from the translated book practically verbatim. I dare say that the camera work was stellar, and while the film was made with almost exclusively close shots, the intimacy of the scenes were striking to the extent that one did not miss the establishing shots. I would call it a masterpiece in terms of camera work.

As is expected, the remake is significantly bloodier than the original, and a whole lot less subtle. In fact, the very act of making the blood and some key action bits obvious has resulted in fairly comical moments. I would not help but see Eli/Abby as Gollum in certain scenes. Some drawn out struggles wound up laughable instead of brutal. That aside, I certainly felt for the acting, and it really was close enough to the original to be worth seeing as a comparison. I also do wish the directors would refrain from turning every damn story into a romance.

I find that the original suffers for the lack of awesome camera technique, and this remake suffers from a lack of subtlety. If the two could've been put together, with the camera from this and the subtlety and narrative from the oldie, I'd have the perfect rendition of the rather fine book. I'd still give this movie an 8/10, however.