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more likable.
In a suburb of a very frigid Stockholm, citizens are disappearing, sometimes found strung up like slaughtered pigs. At the same time, a 12-year old extremely introverted boy from a broken family daily faces such extreme bullying from a school group that he is driven to driving the hidden knife he carries into tree trunks, obviously imaging them to be his adversaries.
A strange girl with a reclusive father moves next door to him and, gradually, he realizes she isn't.... human.
This is the best film of '08.
Though it is frightening--- at times very much so--- that in itself is no great thing; as was said by Hitchcock, a fellow jumping out from a doorway is that much.
Rather, it is the well-drawn characters of the boy and his similarly aged adolescent friend, both of whom are on the cusp of young adulthood but both clearly in danger of never reaching it, that capture our attention and force our affection.
The performances are astonishing with, I am overjoyed to report, none of the Hollywood eye-rolling, looking this way-that way-and back again, cigarette-chewing, hair-fixing, furniture throwing (my personal favorite example is Leonardo's in "Revolutionary Road:" the desk-top-clearing sweep) or other shenanigans.
Love, maturing, friendship, violence, and survival--- all seriously treated without being preachy, trite, or obvious: smashing!
Extra bonus: the director actually managed to make a moody film without resorting to the grey-blue palette which has become as predictable in this genre as blood.
Oh, since this is Valentine's Day: take your beloved. This is also the warmest, most heart-rending, most romantic film I've seen for a long time!
But my take on it is quite different than yours. I didn't see anything romantic about it at all.
.
realize the central story was the love between the boy and the girl???????
That WAS the film.
I don't believe it is a love story. I believe it is an imagining of the pathology of a vampire if they were real and among us. I have no doubt that the boy fell in love. I believe what we saw was the end and begining of a cycle of vampire/human co-depenedence that any vampire but particularly one in the form of a child would need to survive in this world. while i do think there may be some genuine affection just as a blind person feels love for their seeing eye dog, it's first and formost about utility. ultimately what I think we see is the end of the cycle of one human servant who has out lived his utility and the courting of his replacement. I found it very very creepy actually.
Tin,
I agree the friendship between Eli and Oskar is the core of the movie.
Story of two friends who love each other, sure - two haunted children, one trapped forever in adolesence but no longer young, the other struggling with loneliness, anger and all the supressed resentment, bewilderment and anger that encompasses.
But - ELI IS NOT A GIRL, nor ever was. That doesn't skew the dynamic, but it does shade the story in interesting ways, becasue although "she" passes for human, and passes for a girl, Eli was born a boy.
It's still one of the best stories about childhood I've ever seen.
But HE thought "she" was! And she--- recall the scene where she snuggled in bed next to him and others wherein she showed strong emotions (hugs, etc.)--- was shown as a young girl throughout the film, wasn't she? And he pledged his sincerity by that blood ritual? And she saved him and didn't convert him, out of LOVE.
Anyhow, that's my take. A very, very cool love story--- whatever SHE was.
...I don't think it's more "likable" than Pan's Labyrinth, a very different film which I found - erm - very likable. The two movies aren't really anything alike.
"I'm not a girl", says Eli to Oskar. No...and never was. And that wasn't her father. You might consider seeing it again on DVD.
There will reportedly be some deleted scenes on the DVD too.
Truly astonishing performances from the young actors.
as they were presented for the purposes of a short review.
I definitely plan on seeing it again but I think it warrants a bigger screen than my 60" plasma so I'll be venturing out, again, to my local art house screen.
Oh, and by "likable," I meant that it had a kinder substance than the very dark, cruel "PL."
Not in a bad sense, but it is not a gentle story, although it's told with restraint.
SPOILER
Eli was not EVER a girl, you know, and that was not her "father".
and wonder, why this didn't get an Academy nom for best foreigh film?Simply wonderful from beginning to end.
NP-Intolerable Cruelty, wanting to see if it was bad as I remembered.
Edits: 02/14/09
Although, I didn't check to see if it had been submitted.
...it didn't premier in theatrical run in its own country of origin until after the deadline.
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