The film Let Me In, out now at local theaters, points up some interesting facets of the larger world of filmmaking in Hollywood and beyond. A remake of the 2008 Swedish film Let The Right One In, it is a vampire story with a twist: the creature here isn’t a count with a widow’s peak, or even a teen heartthrob, but a lost little girl: Abby (Chloe Moretz) is only 12, though she goes on to explain that “I’ve been 12 for a long time.”
She’s also lonely, and when she and her caretaker move to a tiny New Mexico town, she strikes up a friendship with local bully-bait Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee, last seen in The Road) when she senses his familiar isolation. Together, their new bond gives them each a greater individual strength, a fortitude that lets them persevere during hard times. This new version of the story, like its forebear, wisely focuses on the alienation its characters feel—at least at first.
As re-envisioned by director Matt Reeves—he also made the so-so monster movie Cloverfield—much of the starkness and stillness that made the original so special is replaced, once the blood starts flowing, by whiz-bang camera effects; and the bleak Swedish winter, all concrete and snow, is never fully matched by its American counterpart. What starts out as a decent if unnecessary remake is reduced to just another entry in the horror market, one that will soon seem outdated.
So why do it? The usual excuse is that Americans won’t go to see a subtitled film, but I’m not so sure that’s true these days. Certainly, we’re accustomed to reading while we watch: every day, millions watch cable news as updates scroll across the bottom of their screen; on Sundays, football fanatics watch one game while keeping tabs on the scores of a half dozen others. Watch any YouTube video, and it’s likely to be filled with pop-up annotations. We can do this. Yet time and again we’re treated to what amount to paper tracings of someone else’s art, where the original intent is still visible, but where the details are largely lost. Even the title is dumbed down.
Almost insultingly, the rights to produce an English-language version of Let The Right One In were sold even before the original film was in theaters. Director Tomas Alfredson is philosophical. In an interview with a Swedish film website, he had this to say about the prospect of his film being remade: “Remakes should be made of movies that aren’t very good; that gives you the chance to fix whatever has gone wrong. I’m very proud of my movie and think it’s great, but the Americans might be of another opinion.”
Now, sadly, most Americans probably won’t ever know they had a choice.
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Also this week: Amherst Cinema hosts The Grocer’s Son on Tuesday, Oct. 12 as it inaugurates The Tournees Festival in collaboration with Holyoke Community College. Eric Guirado’s 2007 film was a surprise box-office hit in France, where its countryside coming-of-age story tapped into national nostalgia.
Nicolas Cazale stars as Antoine, the 30-year-old son who leaves the city for Provence when his father falls ill. Returning to his old life of delivering groceries to the local hamlets, Antoine—accompanied by his Parisian crush, Claire—slowly wakes up to the idea that life and love can exist outside of the urban bustle. Holyoke Community College students, faculty and staff can get in for free to the three films in the festival with a Holyoke Community College ID. Others can pay now, or wait for the remake.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
