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Quick book review: Let the Right One In
Yeah, I'm going to be trying to do more reviews. You've been warned.
So Let the Right One In was one of the best movies of last year. A lot of movie critics put this Swedish-Vampire-Film-That-Could at the top of their list and hey, I'll put it at the top of mine too, because while I enjoyed the hell out of The Dark Knight, it wasn't as well-crafted as this film is. I understand that there's some weird problem with DVD subtitles: the film's in Swedish, and apparently whoever released the DVD didn't get the rights to the English translation, and quickly farmed it out to some hack who didn't speak Swedish too well and thus mistranslated the film. As a result, many people who really want to see this film are holding off until the DVD is re-released. But some of us (aka: me) were ignorant of such things, and rented the dubbed version from Netflix. And while the voice acting was predictably poor and awkward, the movie was stylish enough to impress me anyway.
I was impressed enough to buy the book the film was based on, which judging by its first paragraph, promised not to suck:
Blackeberg. It makes you think of coconut-frosted cookies, maybe drugs. 'A respectable life.' You think subway station, suburb. Probably nothing else comes too mind. People must live there, just like they do in other places. That's why it was built, after all, so that people would have a place to live.")
And now having read the book I've gotta say - if you liked the movie, you need to read it.
The book is darker and more labyrinthine; whereas in the film we see everything from Oskar's very limited pov, in the book we get a lot more character perspectives, which alter our sympathies from chapter to chapter. In some parts the book enriches scenes from the movie - you get to find out what was actually going on in a character's head in a particular moment. But there's also whole subplots and revelations that the movie left out (although I'd be very curious to view "deleted scenes" to see if some of them were there in the background). In particular there's a dramatic revelation regarding Eli that throws a very different twist into the story.
The thing that most amazed me about the book was how much more it made me appreciate the movie. Having read it, I can now point to the film and say "that's how you do a good film adaptation." The two stories have the same overall arc, but are completely different. In jettisoning various plotlines and stripping the narrative down to the barest and starkest of essentials, the movie manages to craft an entirely new work of art out of a chilling original. It's brilliantly done, and well worth a read for those of you who are interested in storytelling and the *vast* differences that a bit of editing can make to a manuscript.
PS: Fun fact. Apparently the book was published years ago in the US, but was retitled Let Me In by stupid publishers who believed that the original title (from an English-language song!) was "too long" for American audiences. These, of course, are the same type of people who believe that American kids would never read a book called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" because Americans are anti-intellectual and don't like philosophy. I hate these people. Hate.
Let the Right One In is (as those of you who know the story) a brilliant title, poetic, evocative and chilling, because of course when you watch the film (or read the book) you are fearful that Oskar is letting "the wrong one" into his heart. Let Me In is generic bullshit, and the phrase never once comes up in the text! And guess what, American publisher - your crappy retitled book didn't do well, whereas a film released under the original title scored at the box office - even in America. Publisher = FAILZ!
So Let the Right One In was one of the best movies of last year. A lot of movie critics put this Swedish-Vampire-Film-That-Could at the top of their list and hey, I'll put it at the top of mine too, because while I enjoyed the hell out of The Dark Knight, it wasn't as well-crafted as this film is. I understand that there's some weird problem with DVD subtitles: the film's in Swedish, and apparently whoever released the DVD didn't get the rights to the English translation, and quickly farmed it out to some hack who didn't speak Swedish too well and thus mistranslated the film. As a result, many people who really want to see this film are holding off until the DVD is re-released. But some of us (aka: me) were ignorant of such things, and rented the dubbed version from Netflix. And while the voice acting was predictably poor and awkward, the movie was stylish enough to impress me anyway.
I was impressed enough to buy the book the film was based on, which judging by its first paragraph, promised not to suck:
Blackeberg. It makes you think of coconut-frosted cookies, maybe drugs. 'A respectable life.' You think subway station, suburb. Probably nothing else comes too mind. People must live there, just like they do in other places. That's why it was built, after all, so that people would have a place to live.")
And now having read the book I've gotta say - if you liked the movie, you need to read it.
The book is darker and more labyrinthine; whereas in the film we see everything from Oskar's very limited pov, in the book we get a lot more character perspectives, which alter our sympathies from chapter to chapter. In some parts the book enriches scenes from the movie - you get to find out what was actually going on in a character's head in a particular moment. But there's also whole subplots and revelations that the movie left out (although I'd be very curious to view "deleted scenes" to see if some of them were there in the background). In particular there's a dramatic revelation regarding Eli that throws a very different twist into the story.
The thing that most amazed me about the book was how much more it made me appreciate the movie. Having read it, I can now point to the film and say "that's how you do a good film adaptation." The two stories have the same overall arc, but are completely different. In jettisoning various plotlines and stripping the narrative down to the barest and starkest of essentials, the movie manages to craft an entirely new work of art out of a chilling original. It's brilliantly done, and well worth a read for those of you who are interested in storytelling and the *vast* differences that a bit of editing can make to a manuscript.
PS: Fun fact. Apparently the book was published years ago in the US, but was retitled Let Me In by stupid publishers who believed that the original title (from an English-language song!) was "too long" for American audiences. These, of course, are the same type of people who believe that American kids would never read a book called "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" because Americans are anti-intellectual and don't like philosophy. I hate these people. Hate.
Let the Right One In is (as those of you who know the story) a brilliant title, poetic, evocative and chilling, because of course when you watch the film (or read the book) you are fearful that Oskar is letting "the wrong one" into his heart. Let Me In is generic bullshit, and the phrase never once comes up in the text! And guess what, American publisher - your crappy retitled book didn't do well, whereas a film released under the original title scored at the box office - even in America. Publisher = FAILZ!