I maintain that Let the Right One In is not nearly as well made as everyone wants to believe it is. What gets me the most is the sound design and the score. From Eli's laughable dog noises when she attacks to the swelling score, I can't take it.
Here's a clip that demonstrates why I think that the score is heavy-handed. Watch the following scene. Wear headphones if you have them. At the beginning of the scene, Oskar and his father are playing a game. Both are smiling and an upbeat blues song is playing on the stereo in the background. The movie is at its best when it allows for this sort of 'natural' sound design. Soon enough, one of dad's friends show up. The blues song begins to mute as the dad begins to ignore his son to get a bottle of booze. The last audible notes of the blues song ends when the bottle of booze hits the table. There's a moment of silence. As the two men raise their glasses to their lips, the score pops in to augment Oskar's loneliness, slowly building from a sad lament to a metal buzz as Oskar decides to hitchhike home. The score is artificial, instantly dragging us out of the natural scene that had been constructed, pushing for a feeling with sound instead of trusting the 'reality' of sound that has already been constructed.
I don't know. Maybe others don't see any problem here, but this sort of thing instantly pulls me out of a movie and it happens a lot in Let the Right One In.
2 comments:
It's definitely not as great a film as that boy sitting on the edge of a bathtub. (Now that's a great movie!)
Having not seen more than a few clips, I'm in complete agreement about the score.
So there, Pneumonia Boy. Accept this as a goodwill token to balance out our Haneke feud.
Very truly yours alone,
AbiHerzogail
I hope you feel better pal.
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