Sunday, May 3, 2009

Let The Right One In


'Let the Right One In' is one of the most tender, yet disturbing, coming of age stories I've read (and then watched) in a long, long time.
It tells the story of Oskar, a bullied twelve year old Swedish boy who befriends Eli, a mysterious and very strange girl. Eli smells like death, only comes out at night, must be invited in and acts nothing like a normal twelve year old girl. Oskar falls in love with her anyway. And the more he begins to know about Eli, the more he begins to fear her. Fear, however, won't keep him away from her. Even after he discovers she a vampire (yeah, you didn't see that one coming, huh?), he still wants to be with her.
Oskar learns how to stand up for himself through Eli and I think (this is subject to much debate) Eli learns what it means to care for someone truly. It's heartbreaking and breathtaking. Its brought up these dark worlds in my head, where everyone is guilty yet not evil. The power of this story is that everyone does something wrong and has characteristics that are thought of as revolting, and you feel for them nonetheless. Oskar wants revenge, Eli kills to survive, parents choose other things over their children, people take advantage of others.

I'm not spoiling anything else from the book or the movie, other then both are gory and bloody (so those with quesy stomachs, beware) and yet, wonderful. This is a story you need to let in.

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