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Old 09-10-2009, 03:30 AM   #3588
AFGNCAAP
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Poland
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Count me in as disappointed by Let the Right One In. The most overrated film of the last season for me. I didn't like the odd shifts in tone Andrea mentioned, and also how little was explained about what was actually going on. For example, apart from beatifully playing one, usually-neglected, part of vampire lore -- I mean, of course, the fact that they have to be invited -- the creators didn't really seem to care about what rules apply to these creatures in their story. Which in turn makes it hard to decide whether to fear Eli or to sympathise with her. (I don't mind the fact that the viewer has to make up his own mind. I am complaining that there wasn't nearly enough information to base either decision on.) On the plus side, I agree that both child actors were more than capable, if not exactly exceptional.



More recently I've seen Public Enemies, and boy what a letdown that was. So many talents wasted on a script where you could switch any two characters and nobody would notice, because none had any depth at all. I would give the creators the benefit of the doubt that their shallowness was part of a greater plan - namely demythologizing the gangsters and their era (rather than either villains or anti-heroes, they are presented as "normal" people who just happen to rob banks)... except random historical inaccuracies and succumbing to some of the most conventional conventions (a very movie-like love scene, a character correctly predicting he is going to die the same night, the melodramatic ending) seem completely at odds with that plan. There are three different screenwriters credited, which is not uncommon, but I can't help but wonder if there were a very conventional and a very subversive version of the story at different points in time, and the final screeplay ended up as (rather incohesive) melange of the two.
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