Matt Reeves, the director of Cloverfield, the fun giant-monster movie that was
released a few years ago, has turned his sights to remaking Let The Right One In,
the Swedish horror classic. Renamed Let Me In, Reeves’ remake now takes place in
a desolate town in the dead of winter in New Mexico, back in 1983. The American
Southwest suffers its share of frigid winters, as we witness young Owen glumly
gazing out at the playground in his apartment building, which is now buried under
several inches of snow. After dinner, his fantasies of beating up the bullies who harass him at school
are interrupted by the arrival of new neighbors.
Owen gets his first look at a very strange little girl named Abby and her father
as they walk up to their apartment, which is right next door. The reason Owen
realizes Abby is strange right off the bat is that she’s walking barefoot through
the snow, and she’s not even bothered by it. Of course, as in the original film,
Owen soon finds out just how strange Abby truly is. Kodi Smit-McPhee and Chloe
Morentz are both excellent as Owen and Abby, respectively. Smit-McPhee was
astounding as Viggo Mortensen’s son in The Road, and Morentz simply stole
Kick Ass with her right-on-target performance as Hit Girl.
Reeves’ impeccable casting of these two excellent young actors--along with having Richard Jenkins as Abby’s father, and Elias Koteas as the detective--serves the film very well. The performances of the leads, as well as the entire cast, are all extremely strong, and help to hold the viewer’s interest. And Reeves’ film is surprisingly faithful to the original, so if you’ve seen the Swedish version, then this one won’t offer anything new. But while he follows the basic storyline of the Swedish film with very little changes (other than Americanizing the locales and people), Reeves badly slights the story by ignoring Owen’s family life.
The original film showed how marginalized Oskar was in the eyes of his parents,
which explained how he was so susceptible to Eli’s dark charms. But here, we
hardly even see Owen’s divorced parents, save for a frantic phone call to his
dad, and his mother--who’s relegated to the background in nearly every shot--is
nothing more than the standard religious wacko cliché that Hollywood falls back
on so often. Because of this decision to cut out any psychological underpinnings
of its characters, as well as an annoying habit of telegraphing an important plot
device, the remake falls short. It’s still a well-made film, but if you haven’t
seen this story at all, then I’d advise you to seek out Let The Right One In. --SF
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