A Swedish language film from a few years back, but I've finally gotten around to seeing it. This is one of those rare book adaptions that ends up being better then the source material.

Now, it's a "vampire" story, but you shouldn't let that turn you off, because it's not focused on the mythology but rather on the relationship between the characters Eli and Oskar. The great accomplishment of this movie is the flawless characterization of those two in particular, as they find a strong bond in each other amidst their own respective forms of isolation. It's a very heartwarming story, but it also manages to show some disturbing images and ideas, and there's a general presence of moral dissonance in this movie. The children are not innocent by any means, with Oskar having a sort of repressed-serial killer mood to him at times, the kids who bully him are downright horrid and cruel, and Eli has a lack of compassion for anyone but Oskar.

The cinematography, music, and set design are all perfectly set to the general mood of the story and make up a part of why this is better than the book. The images are captivating yet discouraging, making good use of a somewhat rundown looking Swedish suburb. The music is fragile sounding and moody, which really helps accompany the script and camera work.

Perhaps what I found most surprising were the incredible performance from the child actors. I never think much of children in movies, but these actors made me really feel it.

I'd call this the best movie I've ever seen, and I recommend it to all.

The theatre I work at played it and I ended up seeing it 6 or 7 times, I loved it...

They're gonna make an American version of it. That said, I haven't gotten around to it see it yet, but it was pretty much praised in all Swedish newspapers when it came out.