Let the Right One In

I first heard about this movie when my mom told me a remake of it was being filmed in the town where my parents live (which I thought was pretty cool, and unusual--it's not like they live in L.A. or anything). Then Chris of Park Benches & Bookends posted about the book and movie, convincing me that I was interested enough to watch the original. (I'm especially pleased to be able to name Chris without shaming him this time).

It was kind of nice to see a more realistic portrayal of vampires in this movie. This vampire seemed to follow most of the old-fashioned vampire rules. Nobody sparkled, and no animals were harmed in the making of this movie.

Knowing about the vampire factor ahead of time, I was surprised that this movie was more poignant than creepy. Scenes that could have been made creepier with mood music had no soundtrack. The scenes that did have music mostly seemed more sad than scary.

The version I watched was badly dubbed. I wish I could have watched the one that Chris watched, which was in Swedish with English subtitles. Even with the horrible English voiceovers this was a pretty good movie, but I think it would have improved immensely without them.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

I can recognize a tad of French, a smidgen of German, and a fragment of Spanish, but Swedish? Heck no. That's a whole 'nother ball of spit. I did recognize a few words that sound just like their English counterparts, but that was as far as it went. Anyway, thank goodness for subtitles once again.

I read this book just a few months ago. Once I've read a book, I am frequently eager to watch it come to life on screen, though it doesn't always do so successfully; sometimes it may flop around jerkily like a revenant, sometimes it may be unrecognizable in its new incarnation--but in this case, the adaptation was excellent. I had hoped the movie would eliminate a lot of the blah blah blah that I found at the beginning and end of the book; for the most part it did, although the ending seemed to be a little stretched out--but it had to be, to complete the story.

It's a shame that all adaptations can't follow the book as closely as this one. Evidently Sweden has more respect for their own son than Hollywood has for most authors. A few parts were left out, some others were streamlined, but overall the movie was very faithful to the book. (Well, what I remember of it, anyway). Speaking of Hollywood, of course they want a piece of the action and a remake is already in the works. I don't see how they can improve upon the original, though I bet the new version will reveal the dragon tattoo much sooner than this one. American audiences won't be patient enough to wait an hour and a half to see it.

I really needed to wash dishes and iron clothes tonight, but the only thing I managed to do while watching this movie was to drink wine, since I didn't need my eyes for that. The evening was more fun that way anyway. Though it does mean tomorrow will be less so. But there's a tradeoff. I picked up a cooking tip from this movie: the secret to making meatballs is to wet your hands first. I don't remember that from the book. Will have to try it.

I must admit I don't know much about Sweden. I mean, I know it's between Norway and Finland, and I assume it gets pretty cold there, and my parents and sister have vacationed there (without me, I might add), but that's about all I know. So I looked up Sweden online and learned a couple of facts that I will now pass on to you. The country is a little bit bigger than California (which surprised me--I would have guessed it was the size of Florida--I was way off) but its population isn't much greater than that of New York City. There, don't you feel smarter already?