Pitch Perfect vs. Let Me In

Loneliness is a common staple for many in their childhood and adolescence, and as these films show there are different ways of dealing with it. You could be like Beca (Anna Kendrick), a college student vying to be indie and cool, who (strangely) finds solace in some occasionally cringeworthy a Capella group performances. Or you could be like Owen (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a 12 year old who has no friends and is bullied at school, and befriend your local vampire. The choice is yours! But, as ever, the important question is: which one's better?

Lets start with Pitch Perfect. I had low expectations of this film, the premise has been done so many times that cinema goers already know exactly how the plot will unfold before they take their seats. The fairly dreadful vocal group will be boosted by the arrival of one person who is vaguely talented and who will allow the other members  to discover their own strengths. The vocal group will eventually win a competition, and the talented individual will 'find themselves' in the music, and will be able to open their heart to an attractive but frustrated love interest. Pitch Perfect doesn't venture away from this rigid plot structure. Thankfully though it's all tongue-in-cheek, the put-upon boy in charge of the auditions gives an amusing monologue about how singing will not help you cope with confused sexuality.

For an American comedy, it's actually quite funny. There are a variety of eccentric characters that are bound to win over you heart, boosted by good performances all round. There's the Star Wars geek, who is also a magician and has wonderful sideburns. There's the misogynistic radio presenter and his poor female colleague, formerly from unfortunately named a Cappella group The Minstrel Cycle. There's the controlling group leader who occasionally projectile vomits like the girl from The Exorcist. There's a wide eyed creepy girl who always talks in a whisper about death and destruction. And Beca's unfortunate roommate who refuses to speak to her throughout the film.

So yes, the plot is nothing new, but the characters maintain interest. The music is nothing special, possibly a little out of date but it was always going to be with a feature film. I particularly enjoyed the shout out to flame-haired quiff-sporting British songstress La Roux, and her incredibly cut-throat Bulletproof seemed fitting for Beca's favourite song.

Anna Kendrick gives a decent performance is Beca, taking that traditional comedy role as the only sane one amidst an ensemble cast of total nutters (think The Vicar of Dibley). She doesn't overplay the fact that she has no friends, keeping this a light-hearted affair. Although how she can cry at The Breakfast Club is beyond me. In fact referenced that particular film wasn't the wisest idea as that gave a more eye-opening account of adolescence than this movie.

This will not leave you with any lasting thoughts of "the pain of puberty" (Graham Greene quoted in Donnie Darko if anyone's interested), it's an amusing way to pass a couple of hours. As I've already noted, the humour is surprisingly good. My favourite scene involved making snow angels in vomit. You have to see it to believe it.

Moving on from this optimistic affair, we head towards the utter bleakness of Let Me In. While Beca's problems were underplayed, Owen's certainly aren't. He is bullied, or rather terrorised, by his sadistic classmates. His father has left home, and his mother doesn't much care for him. He's prone to moonlight wandering, where he comes across introverted Abby (Chloe Grace Mortez). The two are soon drawn together, and things finally start looking up for Owen. But Abby has a dark secret, and a thirst that can never be satisfied and threatens to destroy them both.

This would almost certainly have made it on to my brief examination of vampire films (15/12/12), and would probably have topped the lot of them. It's marketed as a horror film, but it's so much more than that. The two sides of Abby's personality seem irreconcilable, you can't help but like her as Owen's salvation but are utterly terrified of her when she's around anyone else. The central question is "how far can you forgive the ones you love when they do terrible things?". Should what a person is to you or what the person is really like take precedence when judging them. A running theme is burning, both by fire and acid, and this reminded me of the theme of burning away pretence in The Crucible to discover who we really are.

Once the film is over, I think it's impossible to be quite sure if Owen's resolution is a condemnation to a life of misery and evil or a triumphant stand for the ones we love against arbitrary barriers of morality (images of religion abound, which to me suggest that we're meant to think religion is just a method of fear to encourage us to act in socially acceptable ways. Owen himself asks "is there such a thing as evil?"). Morality is called into question all the way, personally I found the attacks on Owen at school more gruesome than Abby's guardians killings to satisfy his beloved's appetite, as at least there is a dimension of love to the latter. Although there's always a part of you that wishes to see Abby meet a grisly end as punishment for the lives she's torn apart, you can never fully condemn her as evil because of Owen's adoration of her. Bizarrely enough, if Abby wasn't a vampire this would be an uplifting tale of the power of friendship.

The acting is truly outstanding considering the ages of the two leads, and by the end you're rooting for both of their characters despite the terrible things they've both done. Matt Reeves (director) does a fantastic job of maintaining the dark and eerie tone throughout (he did a good job with Cloverfield too, which was sadly let down by weak characterisation), giving a twisted fairytale quality to certain aspects of the story but carefully balancing this with moments of pure despair and suspense. The choral music adds to the dreamlike feel of proceedings.

There are only a couple of things I didn't like. Firstly, the opening flashforward to the middle of the story seemed clumsy and was unnecessary, giving the film a weak opening. Secondly, one of the attacks was actually made to be quite humorous, a man is assaulted in his car while his friends are obliviously nattering away outside. But I suppose dark humour offered a little light relief.

Personally, I adored this film and it will haunt me for quite some time. However, not everyone will agree. For starters. many prefer the movie this is based on: Let The Right One In, a subtitled Swedish version. But as I'm lazy and personally can't appreciate the acting properly if you have to keep looking at subtitles, I think this one will do for me.

So, to conclude you have the option of a cheery musical with some decent laughs or a touching and heartbreaking parable of lonliness, friendship and forgiveness. I think most readers will know which I would favour. Let Me In is victorious.

And now for the ratings....
Pitch Perfect: 6/10
Let Me In: 9/10