Let Me In (2010)

It is difficult to find a decent 'review' of 'Let Me In'. Most of them spend the entire time debating the ethics and need for a (virtually) shot-by-shot remake of a foreign film. As such, they miss the whole point: telling people whether they enjoyed the movie or not. As someone who hasn't yet had the chance to see the original movie in its entirety yet (not an easy task for someone living in Australia, short of pirating the original movie), a wide release in a format more comfortable to myself is greatly appreciated. This is what I like to think of as the main reasoning behind the remake: giving the original film a better chance of being seen by a greater audience.

The two main characters in the story are a young boy, Owen, and a young 'girl', Abby. Owen is played by Kodi Smit-McPhee as an awkward young boy who struggles when relating to others. It is a testament to the strength of both his acting and the script itself that we find him endearing rather then unsettling: he spies on neighbouring apartments using a telescope, steals money from his mother for sweets and practices stabbing the school bullies to death with a knife on the tree outside his block of apartments. We are drawn to him by his social standing as the underdog, the 'weak kid' who gets picked on at school with little hope hope of redemption. There are darker aspects of his character that clearly separate him from the sickly-sweet 'troubled teens' who populate the majority of Hollywood films. When Abby arrives in his block of flats, she is portrayed as a troubled youth, through her lack of shoes and socially awkward demeanour. She is played by Chloe Moretz, who manages to tread the line between innocence and maturity very successfully. There are clear parallels between Abby and Owen, making their relationship seem organic rather then simply a plot point.

The focus of the film is on the development of Owen's personality. After Abby tells him to stand up for himself, we can see that her presense has caused a dramatic shift in his self-confidence. The reason the film is so compelling is that the audience is constantly questioning their own sense of morality. We are often encouraged to be on the side of Abby and Owen, then confronted with a tremendously violent scene that demonstrates that horrible things will be done to innocent (and not so innocent) people because of Owen and Abby's actions. The film does a great job of showing the two sides of Abby, startling the audience by the speed with which she can move from a savage animal to an innocent young girl. Watching Owen hugging Abby without regard to her bloodstained clothing is heart-warming in a very strange way. It is this sort of scene that brings conflicting emotions to the surface in the audience, which is something that the movie does very often to great effect.

The film doesn't draw a clear line between good and evil, which proves to be a good thing. Grey areas are usually more interesting then plain black and white. This film doesn't just dabble in grey areas: it wallows in them, daring the audience to follow. That is commendable in any movie, whether the characters speak English, Swedish or Chinese.