Warm Bodies

by Chiara Spagnoli

In the past few years we’ve been sucked up in the realm of vampire love stories: pathos, blood, pretentiousness, all elements that produced the audience’s exasperation. This time the Transylvanians get substituted by a funny new twist on a classic love story between dead and alive, between cold bodies and ‘Warm Bodies’.

Jonathan Levine who had won the Audience Award at 2008’s Sundance Film Festival with his movie ‘The Wackness’ chose to put on screen the novel by Isaac Marion, ‘Warm Bodies,’ described as a ‘zombie romance.’ Indeed, after a zombie epidemic, R (a highly unusual zombie) encounters Julie (a human survivor), and rescues her from a zombie attack. Julie sees that R is different from the other zombies, and as the two form a special relationship in their struggle for survival, R becomes increasingly more human – setting off an exciting, romantic, and often comical chain of events that begins to transform the other zombies and maybe even the whole lifeless world.

The movie doesn’t take itself too seriously, it actually mocks the YA love stories that occur between humans and unearthly creatures, in this case the dead coming back to life. But despite the ironic approach the plot is drenched with feeling and rhythm, as well as a great ensemble of talented actors. Blue-eyed Nicholas Hoult has gone a long way since he was starting out his career as a child in the movie co-starring Hugh Grant, ‘About a Boy’; just as powerful in her performance is the rising Australian beautiful actress Teresa Palmer. Dave Franco needs not his older brother James to open the doors of stardom, since he delivers a brilliant act. The cherry on top is John Malkovic’s presence amongst the fledgeling artists, almost to give his blessing to the stars of tomorrow.

In the movie there are amusing references to the Shakespearean star-crossed lovers R(omeo) and Julie(t), which makes the humour more pungent within a sweet love story, that puts passion aside in favour of a hesitant friendship that blossoms into a deeper feeling. Dementia rules in the movie both in terms of the characters portrayed, who are demented zombies (sometimes the humans don’t seem less insane than the walking dead), as well as the earthy commonsensical comedy gags.

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