Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (Tomas Alfredson, 2011)

7/10
I feel like this is a movie I might enjoy more on a second viewing - not only to help clarify the plot which I found a bit muddy, but because it just seems like the type that might grow on me. Especially since I found the first 45 minutes or so a real tough slog...characters are reserved to the point of being frustrating (the repeated questions that go unanswered by characters staring pensively into the distance is more annoying than intriguing at a certain point) and the movie is so dry from dialogue to cinematography that it feels like the celluloid it's printed on might crumble any second. The story picks up in the second half and becomes quite engrossing, the acting is top notch (especially Gary Oldman and Colin Firth, the latter criminally underused), and the period detail is remarkable. The ending is a bit of a wash though - with much screen time devoted to the mechanics of the mystery itself, there isn't enough time to develop any of the suspects enough to manifest real viewer interest in the "whodunnit" aspect. Not a bad movie, but pretty flawed too.

Let the Right One In (Tomas Alfredson, 2008)

8.5/10
A touching, coming-of-age vampire movie from Sweden, probably released last year as well. Not much gore to speak of (though there's some) but a dark, gothic vibe from start to finish that sticks this one on the fringes of horror. The two 12-year old protagonists are fantastic and the story incredibly engrossing, although there is a distracting subplot that could've been done away with. In fact you could've chopped about 10 minutes from the movie and it might have boosted my score up even more. Sometimes it dragged a bit. But otherwise a pretty remarkable movie. Apparently JJ Abrams is trying to get this remade in the U.S. as well.