Let Me In ( 2010 )

Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Chloe Moretz, Richard Jenkins, Cara Buono, Elias Koteas, & Sasha Barrese.

Directed By Matt Reeves

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1228987/


Among American versions of recent foreign movies, arguably none has faced the same chariness and doubt that awaits "Let Me In," a remake of 2008 "Let the Right One In.” 

A moody, black-humored variant on "E. T.," Tomas Alfredson's Swedish original focuses on a lonely, bullied boy whose life is changed by a new kid in his apartment complex -- a girl who goes shoeless in the snow, solves Rubik's cubes in moments, scurries up buildings and trees, and, oh yeah, drinks blood to live.  The film moves with strange, creepy energy and is populated by characters who delicately walk a line between charm and grotesquerie.  It’s a treat.

And hey, whattaya know:  "Let Me In" manages to capture much of the essence of the original -- so much, in fact, that it feels a mite redundant even as it bears its lineage with honor.  Director Matt Reeves ("Cloverfield") has pared some elements from the original, but he moves his film with a similar confidence, poise, sad beauty and droll wit.  And while he has added a splash of conventional horror, "Let Me In" is as compelling (if, inevitably, not as fresh) as its source, and, like Reeves' "Cloverfield," injects new life to an often-tired genre.

Kodi Smit-McPhee ("The Road") stars as mopey child-of-divorce Owen, Chloe Moretz ("Kick-Ass") gives another preternaturally grown-up performance as Abby, his bloodsucking crush, and such stalwarts as Richard Jenkins and Elias Koteas offer moments of substance.  Reeves, though, is the standout, marshalling the look and flow of the film as surely as he does the performances.  He has taken someone else's work and so infused it with apt and knowing choices that if feels as if it began with him personally -- a heck of a thing to achieve with such a potentially dubious project.

Mr. What? ( * * * )