- Tomas Alfredson's Let the Right One In is not the vampire movie you're expecting. In fact, the film reminded me most of tragic coming-of-age stories such as The 400 Blows or Au Revoir Les Enfants, except that one of the dejected young children in this story happens to be a vampire. Her name is Eli (Lina Leandersson), and she looks pretty much like any other introverted 12-year-old girl. Sure, she's been twelve for a long time, but aside from that you'd never guess that she requires the blood of the living to survive.
- It doesn't take Eli long to recognize a kindred spirit in Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant), a painfully shy boy who practices standing up to the class bully (Patrik Rydmark) from the safety of his bedroom. But Eli can never become friends with Oskar, as she immediately informs him. It takes Oskar only seconds to respond that he didn't need her to be his friend in the first place. Their badly pretended nonchalance is just one of the many things they have in common, which is why they bond so quickly over a shared Rubik's cube and secret Morse code messages. Oskar doesn't know that Eli's a vampire yet, and one wonders what he makes of questions like "If I wasn't a girl, would you like me anyway?"
- Their friendship might have carried on this way for a while if not for the very practical matter of Eli's diet. Here, the film crosses over into the realm of black comedy every time Eli's guardian Håkan (Per Ragnar) proves himself completely inept at acquiring fresh blood. Eli even resorts to feeding herself a few times, leading to problems for her well-meaning neighbors (Mikael Rahm and Ika Nord). But theirs is tight-knit Swedish suburb, and it isn't long before Eli's blocked windows and suspicious behavior draw unwanted attention from another neighbor (Peter Carlberg) who watched his wife succumb to Eli's vampirism. Although Oskar is fairly accepting of Eli's strange condition, it remains to be seen whether the two children can protect each other from their tormentors.
- The best parts of Let the Right One In utilize the imagery of a wonderfully bleak Swedish winter to reinforce how lonely life can be for children who don't fit in. Sure, Oskar's problems revolve around school bullies and inattentive parents (Karin Bergquist and Henrik Dahl) while Eli's stem from having to drink blood, but otherwise the two children really aren't that different. The film is also very creative in depicting Eli's vampiric nature, even slyly substituting in another actress (Susanne Ruben) when her cravings get really bad. My only real complaint is that the film occasionally crosses the line into farce, especially during an unexpected cat attack and the final limb-strewn pool scene. Still, there are far worse vampire movies out there and far less creative ways to deliver Eli's resounding plea for empathy: "Be me, for a little while."
