Apparently zombies and humans are the new Montagues and Capulets. Warm Bodies does for zombies what Twilight has done for vampires: it provides a romantic spin on a misunderstood horror type. Using the Shakespearean underpinning, Warm Bodies showcases the unlikely romance between human Julie (Theresa Palmer) and zombie R (Nicholas Hoult). What Warm Bodies lacks in wow moments and strong supporting characters, it makes up for in originality and strong writing. Writer/Director Jonathan Levine (50/50) finds the right mix of romance and comedy and keeps what could become a really boring story consistently interesting.
R is in a rut. Living in his airplane apartment and “conversing” in an airport with his best bud M (Rob Corddry), R is just going through the motions of zombie existence. Then comes the fateful day where he and his zombie pals ransack Julie’s battalion, leading to R eating Julie’s boyfriend’s (Dave Franco) brain. By eating the brain, R gets memories of Julie through the boyfriend’s perspective and immediately falls in love with her. R is forced to hide her in her plane where the two strike up an unlikely bond. This bond is threatened on two sides: by Julie’s dad (John Malkovich) and the remaining humans, and by “bonies:” former zombies who have given up and ripped their skin off.
Zombies are about to have a big year. The Walking Dead, this movie, and Brad Pitt’s World War Z mean that you’ll be seeing more of the post-apocalyptic habitants. Warm Bodies’s version of zombies should be explored in other movies. Zombies here are not brain-dead, they are just severely brain deficient, and they have the opportunity for choices: they can either give up and become skeletal beings, or they can wait, and hope their hearts warm up by humans, who they crave for food. This twist is much less maddening than Twilight’s vampires (who sparkle in sunlight) and makes zombies more than just one note killing machines. The frustration of Warm Bodies is the fact that this complication is only minorly explored between R and Julie. As a result, the payoff is somewhat meaningful, but not as impactful as it could have been.
The success of Warm Bodies is the fact that the stories pace does not drag. New wrinkles are introduced that make the story not lapse into boredom. While R cannot speak his mind, he has enough body language and common sense to get his point across to Julie, plus the audience gets access to R’s mind, hammering his motivations home to the audience even if Julie doesn’t understand. There is a reason R and Julie were the chosen names for these characters as the star-crossed lovers’ story is evident in many parts of Warm Bodies (there is even a balcony scene). Their courtship is fun (even though there are a couple obvious plot contrivances to keep them together) and their bond becomes a motivating factor for the audience when R and Julie’s lives are in peril (despite the obvious CGI nature of the skeletons). Warm Bodies walks the line between humor and earnestness very well and earns its payoffs.
Another big year to keep an eye on is for Nicholas Hoult (he will be the lead in Jack the Giant Slayer later this year). As R, Hoult does a solid job conveying emotions despite having to keep roughly the same facial expression throughout the entire movie. He and Theresa Palmer are nice to see together, and have a very relaxed chemistry. Palmer is solid as Julie if not very memorable in the long run. Rob Corddry gets some nice bit parts as M and Analeigh Tipton gets a funny little montage as Julie’s best friend. John Malkovich is miscast as the leader of the humans; it should be someone with more hurt gravitas that would be in on the joke like Bruce Willis or Bryan Cranston.
Warm Bodies is clearly going for the Twilight fan base. While not as sexually charged with ripped shirtless werewolf boys or diamond vampires, Warm Bodies is a sometimes intriguing, sometimes heartfelt, sometimes funny misunderstood love story. Warm Bodies easily jumps its low bar, and hopefully sets up some sort of side adventure where the movie’s complicated zombie creation can be more properly explored.