**** 1/2
I wish I'd waited till next year to watch this one, as having just seen the American version, I think something was slightly lost in seeing the same story done over again so quickly. Tended to take me out of the suspension of disbelief and into the frame of "what's different?"
Still, there's no denying how beautiful and subtle this movie is. And that it tackles the overplayed vampire genre from a genuinely new and surprising place is doubly impressive. Sort of how District 9 turned the alien invasion story on its head.
So why 1/2 star better than the American version? The answer is that I think I'd actually rate them both the same, if I had it to do over again. There are things in each I prefer to the other.
Interestingly, there seems to be some confusion about whether the American version is a "remake" of the movie, or a second and separate adaptation of the novel. I suppose it's a hybrid of the two.
Some general thoughts on the two movies:
- The small moments in this one are perfectly underplayed and one hallmark of the difference between the two movies, maybe between American and continental cinema generally. The boy brushing his teeth with his mom or watching his dad share a bottle of vodka with a friend...these are moments of honesty that create this strange sad scary little world.
- I like the addition of the cop lens in the American version. Indeed, I find it a little silly that police figure NOT AT ALL in the Swedish version. What sort of horrible socialist bureaucracy is that place that a series of brutal murders in Stockholm doesn't arouse even slight interest? Obviously, it's supposed to be happening off camera, but it seems a weird omission.
- The cat attack scene is awesome.
- When Eli flings her used-up old guy out of the hospital window, it's the best "falling body" I've ever seen filmed. That ricochet off the front entrance of the building was fantastic. Again, so muted and underplayed that the violence is extra shocking. The thud of the body and then the silence and cold, and Eli just staring down.
- There's an odd and shocking scene involving Eli's genitalia that isn't in the American version. Vampires are often seen as androgynous or bisexual, and I notice now that I did mention that the girl actor in the American one is slightly androgynous. But damn, Eli seems to have had surgery down there.
- Does it strike anyone as weird that a vampire would still be so childlike after all those years? I know it's a commonplace of vampires that they can look young and yet be old souls, so this movie seems to be trying to invent a new mythology: "I've been 12 for a really long time." So nice effort and all, but does it actually make sense? Or is she just pretending to be on the level of her new mark because she needs a new protector? (This goes for both versions).
