Date movie! Warm Bodies is a zom-rom-com (zombie romantic comedy - a more populous genre than you might expect!) but the emphasis is firmly on the "rom". This movie is just really sweet and I really liked it.
There's no long introduction to the apocalyptic events that have turned a large part of the world's population into zombies, it just is the state of current affairs in this movie so you just get stuck into it. Most people are zombies, but there are two distinct kinds - the ones that are dead and hungry for brains but can still kinda remember what life was like 'before', and the ones who've given up and let go and become true walking corpses. These second ones are called "Bonies" and they are fast, mean and move a little bit like terminators. A small group of humans is still alive and living behind a large wall hoping to keep the corpses out.
Our narrator and guide through this apocalyptic future is R (played beautifully by Nicholas Hoult who was the boy in 'About a Boy' and was young Beast in X-Men: First Class) who can't remember his name but can still function a little beyond groaning, stumbling and eating brains. At first I was very annoyed with this non-zombie like behaviour but I was soon saying 'a-ha' when I realised that is exactly the point. Not all zombies are created equal in this scenario, and it seems that change is possible when R kills a young guy called Perry and eats his brain which results in him getting Perry's memories and thoughts, in particular about his beautiful girlfriend Julie (played by Aussie Teresa Palmer who is slowly building up a portfolio of Hollywood movies).
When R doesn't kill Julie, instead rescuing her from his zombie pals by taking her deep into the heart of zombie and bonies territory, it sets the scene for our rom-com as he tries to communicate his feelings to her and she gradually lets down her tough-girl barrier. But there's only so long that human flesh can be disguised from a discerning bonies nose, so Julie and R have to go on the run. A very slow run! This takes the action up a couple of levels as we switch from cute romance tropes to a survival story with a twist - could R and Julie's 'relationship' be inspiring the zombies to become more human? And if so, can they survive long enough to triumph against the bonies and the humans, including Julie's hard-hearted father who is the General of the surviving human population?
I was slightly disappointed at the low level of gore on display for a zombie movie, but the sweetness won me over so that it really just felt like a smart rom-com. Director Jonathan Levine has previously won me over with the movie 50/50 and this is similarly smart and sweet. Nicholas Hoult does a great job at portraying the oh so subtle physical changes taking place in R and gets all the warmly funny bits where he expresses the frustration at being locked inside a zombie body. Teresa Palmer gets to play tough but sweet as Julie and the couple definitely makes sense. John Malkovich is completely wasted in the tiny role of Julie's Dad (check out 'Red' if you want more of this Malkovich) and Rob Corddry (Lou from 'Hot Tub Time Machine') also doesn't get to do much of his usual messed up funny stuff. Dave Franco as Perry gets more time in flashbacks/memories than he does in actually being alive in the film, and is getting more like his brother James all the time.
This is a movie you should definitely ask that guy or girl that you like to go and see. It's got a bit of everything that's cool, it's actually pretty smart and puts a different enough spin on the apocalypse that you should have a fun time. And it's not too scary or gory if your date isn't into that.
No comments:
Post a Comment