Fletch's Film Review: Coraline and Let the Right One In (Låt den rätte komma in)

Part XII in my continuing quest to combine reviews for two films that seemingly have nothing in common, but are in fact about the same thing. For more reviews like this, click here or here.

Ok, so that's not really the case (and that's why there are no links above) - it's just a happy coincidence that brings these two films together in one post. Besides, I'm not sure what parallels I could make about a stop-motion 3-D animated movie about children learning to respect and obey their parents and a Swedish coming-of-age film that just so happens to be about a vampire (while not being about a vampire at all, really). I guess if I tried really hard, I could draw a line from the camaraderie between Coraline and her friend/not-a-friend Wybie and the mutually beneficial relationship between Right One's Oskar and Eli - but no, I'm not even gonna try.

Of course, they do share more in common. Both are book adaptations. Both star tween-aged protagonists, each in search of a friend in a lonely, potentially cruel world. And both are expertly-made films - one a painstaking technical marvel that emits the joy and devotion of its creators from beyond its inanimate surface, and the other a dual character study and love story wearing the skin of something much more dangerous.

The similarities pretty much end there, though. Coraline, while especially dark and written above the level of a typical kids' movie at times, remains a cautionary tale for all the children out there who are or were tempted to run away from home after being told to eat their peas and carrots one too many times. Single-child Coraline escapes to a fantasy world that turns into a nightmare world relatively quickly, but the danger was in her head the whole time (or was it?), merely there to teach her a fast (but important) lesson about appreciating her surroundings a bit more. That said, director/co-writer Henry Selick (The Nightmare Before Christmas) has crafted a fun, timeless tale with some literally colorful characters (Ian McShane's Mr. Bobinsky, for one) that ought to be enjoyed by multiple generations.

Let the Right One In, meanwhile, won't likely merely be enjoyed by scores of people but rather hailed as a modern masterpiece. It'd be best to go into the movie cold, but the quick skinny is this: Oskar is a lonely, picked-on 12-year old. He's had it, and it's not hard to see him becoming a Columbine-like tragedy within a few years should his situation remain unchanged. But then Eli moves into his apartment building. Staying with her guardian/helper, Eli just happens to be a vampire (who appears to be the same age, but is in fact much older). The two forge a friendship that's both unlikely and perfectly likely simultaneously, mutually benefitting each other and affecting the future for both indefinitely.

Set in Sweden, viewers that live outside of the Great Lakes area are bound to be struck by the all-encompassing snowiness of it all and what a large role that the setting plays in the film, especially when contrasted with the relationship between Oskar and Eli, which is anything but frozen. Though the cast of characters isn't fleshed out very well beyond the two leads and Eli's helper Håkan, the depth we're given on the duo more than suffices, and that detail is given even more importance when you remember that this is "just a vampire movie."

Full of memorable scenes (including what might be the best ending of any 2008 film) and terrific acting by its young leads, Let the Right One In is the best film that nobody saw last year, and I'm just sad that it took me so long to do so.

Fletch's Film Rating:

Coraline

"Darn tootin!"


Let the Right One In

"You're the best...around!"