Warm Bodies
Director: Jonathan
Levine
Starring: Nicholas
Hoult, Teresa Palmer,
Rob Corddry, and John Malkovich
Horror fans, we are in the era of making horrible things
beautiful. However, this isn’t the kind
of beauty portrayed by the likes of Bram Stoker’s gothic love tale. Warm Bodies is an example of the recent
splurge in PG-13 tailored horror films meant to please a specific demographic.
That being explained, it doesn’t mean that films that occupy this category
can’t do something ingenious, which is what Warm
Bodies achieves in some regards.
A zombie epidemic has taken over the world forcing those not
infected to retreat beyond self-sustaining cities surrounded by a massive wall.
R (Nicholas Hoult), an altogether different kind of zombie, narrates a portion
of the film explaining his daily ritual and the ambitions lost from his former
“living” life. What motivates R is an unrelenting complaisance to the zombie
life until a beautiful woman named Julie (Teresa Palmer) enters his world. R’s
decision to save Julie, instead of eating her, is the turning point in his
afterlife that brings about an unexpected change.
Jonathan Levine is a talented director and much of what
works for Warm Bodies is an express
result of his expertise. The film rewrites many of the traditional rules of the
zombie mythos while leaving room for familiar, conventional aspects to remain
intact. Zombies still have the urge to eat and brains remain their preferred
meal. However, brains hold a sort of bliss for the living dead, allowing them
to retain the memories of those they consume. Zombies have a greater threshold
of communication that is mostly garbled and mumbled grunts, but still a form of
interaction reminiscent of Bub in Romero’s Day
of the Dead.
Though Levine does well to establish new rules for his
zombie ode, he seems to lose focus in the latter half of the film. R is clearly
different from the other zombies, but Levine's main focus becomes the
development of the character in the realms of love instead of also examining
the bigger picture. Levine does utilize comedy and pop culture with capable
hands in the form of the budding relationship of R and Julie amidst a clever
soundtrack of narrative specific tunes. The horror properties are strictly
subdued with minimal amounts of gore and some particularly dreadful CGI zombie
skeletons
The performances are a plus with Hoult personifying his
zombie with charm, which is a usually compliment for a character that should
induce fear, but Hoult pulls it off. Palmer is the standout as Julie, permitting
her character intricacies with a blend of toughness and sensitivity. Malkovich
is slightly miscast as a controlling father to Julie and renegade leader of the
protected city. Though he is menacing, his character arch is apparent from the
very beginning.
There aren’t many surprises in Warm Bodies, but Jonathan
Levine is a good writer and director, and there are some clever aspects
glancing through. Warm Bodies is a difficult execution, and honestly had all
signs of being potentially terrible, but Levine’s shrewd eye on character keeps
the film floating even when elements of horror are absent.
Monte’s Rating
No comments:
Post a Comment