Let the Right One In: The company of children

[Wolfchild]

I don't follow the chat board over at IMDB as often as I used, so I can't claim to know exactly which thread the guy in this column at salon.com is talking about. Whichever it was, it led him in a very good direction. He articulates very well something that I suppose many of The Infected are familiar with. In fact I'll bet the post he is talking was made by one of The Infected.

That is what I thought when this film introduced me to Eli. Of course I was attracted to her, not as an unstable adult to a child, but as the fragile 12-year-old who sometimes still lives inside, a vulnerable little tike who would have loved to have a friend like Eli.

[covenant6452]

But that he remembered what it was like to be 12 years old, to be alone, to feel advancing changes of puberty on the horizon, and to look at someone your own age, feel those first pangs of attraction, and wonder how it would feel if the two of you were friends.

This is just what I was on about with my post about how the film made me think of the Italian girls who moved next door to me when I was young. Except more articulate and better written!

[TΛPETRVE]

Great job he did there.

[moonvibe34]

my sentiments exactly. bravo.

[a_contemplative_life]

I think that Eli, the character she plays, touched something in his heart as it did mine, and like me he has found the character to be haunting and unforgettable. There is something very appealing about Eli and yet something very tragic, and that is what makes her so unique and Lina Leandersson's performance so special.

Yes, exactly.

[Mr.Sample]

...Eli, who appears to be a 12-year-old girl but is really a 200-year-old creature of the night.

At the same time, she is still trapped in the body of a child.

It's strange that he can like Eli so much despite this misbelief of his.

[gattoparde59]

As I said, I saw her through Oskar, and I sort of saw myself through both of them

My relationship to the characters may have evolved over time, and what I thought initially is now unclear to me, but now I really identify most with Eli. I don't love Eli, I am Eli in some sense.

I would lie in bed at night and say things like "I don't want to be a vampire anymore," metaphorically speaking of course. There is a passage in there where he recognizes Eli as a child trapped in a much older existence. I feel that way at times.

[genie47]

His article evoked memories.

I do like the character of Tracy Di Vicenzo (played by Diana Rigg). I almost read all the James Bond books and for a woman to make James Bond settle down must be some woman indeed. When she was shot by Blofeld, I remember myself being as heartbroken as James Bond himself as he kissed her still warm lips.

[DMt.]

It seems likely to me that this LTROI theme is a sort of mirror of the Child in each observer.

[Aurora]

That's a well written article, he certainly has a good understanding of the story.