Let Me In. I’m torn on this remake. I like the good suspense with a steady, chilling, creeping weirdness about it, but not so intense that I didn’t mind stopping the film a couple times to take a break. It’s crippled by a bad/ill-timed score, which drove me nuts. The young actors are very, very good and pretty much carry the whole thing when it goes off-course. The shots and locations are chosen and photographed really well. Love the contrast of warm/cold, damp/dry, bright/dark. But there’s some sketchy CGI and it seems like the director should have made stronger decisions about showing the violence on-screen vs. off. It kind of waffles. Interesting themes of power, safety, and dependency. I also loved the one perfect moment when the two leads are hanging out: She picks up his Romeo & Juliet book, which he dismisses as a boring class assignment; then he talks to her about Morse code. The premise of the whole film is good enough that I’d like to see the original.
Mark Larson 