Capitalism - Feudalism without the Kings

Tax the Rich

Movie Monday

Last week without the kids, I saw Breaking Dawn Part 1 with subtitles so I got all the words. I wanted to watch it alone and again to see if my opinion of it changed. It hasn't. I still think this is the only watchable Twilight movie since the first even though I think the chemistry between the lovers is lacking by this movie. It's almost like: When is my contract up? acting. But what's compensating for this is the fact that Bill Condon is a good director and some of his nice directional touches shine through.

But the movie I want to review this Monday is a "real" vampire movie: Let Me In, which is a remake of the Swedish Let The Right One In. While I'm not a fan of remakes, I think this movie captures the angst of vampire hood on the vamp and his/her enablers.

Starring Kodi Smit-McPhee and made a year after his stellar turn in The Road (a little gem which the world overlooked) it tells the story of a bullied, lonely, broken-home 12 year old boy who unknowingly befriends a locked-in-time" 12 year old girl vampire, Abby. As with the original, this version builds slowly. You're first introduced to Abby's enabler (Hey, she's a little girl! Someone has to kill and obtain the human blood for her.) who has been taken into custody and hospitalized after a killing/blood gathering incident goes wrong. His suicide by jumping from the hospital window (no spoilers here really) prefaces the movie which then begins with the title: Two Weeks Earlier.

We watch the childhood romance between Owen and Abby which is so pathetically natural and then so horribly sad as he learns her identity and the nature of her being. By the end of the movie, Owen's vicious bullying by schoolmates and Abby's dilemma with finding blood meet and we get a bittersweet ending which we know will never end happily.

This is the antithesis of the Twilight saga. Edward and Rosalie touch on the horrors of vampire hood and eternal life but Meyers has opted for the Hollywood vamp - no metaphors for her.

Let Me In is the metaphor for any "other" existing in the normal world. How do you survive when tomorrow is never ever going to be happy? A lot of "food for thought" and a lot to discuss with teens. But be warned: this movie shows the carnage. And don't miss the short scene where Owen looks at the picture strip showing Abby and another young boy. It says so much.

This movie is a quiet gem. Abby and Owen (Chloe Grace Moretz [13] and Kodi Smit-McPhee [14]) almost single-handedly carry this movie with a charm and talent which is often missing is young actors. Don't miss it.