For almost as long as film has been around, vampires have
appeared onscreen in all sorts of guises, and treated with varying levels of
respect. There have been evil bloodsucking bastard vampires (TV movie Salem’s Lot, Near Dark), pitied, misunderstood vampires (Let The Right One In, Interview
With The Vampire), comedy vampires (Fright
Night, From Dusk Till Dawn), vampires that aren’t really vampires (Martin), sexy, erotic vampires (all of
Hammer’s Dracula films), and glossy
haired, just walked out of a L’Oreal advert, vampires (every single Twilight film). It feels like you can’t
go more than a couple of years without another undead bloodsucker gracing the
big screen and in 2014 you have Jim Jarmusch’s latest offering, Only Lovers Left Alive.
Jarmusch is one of a small number of directors who only
produces a film every three-or-four years, each one vastly different from the
last. Whatever you think of Jarmusch and his films (Broken Flowers and Ghost Dog
being his most well-known), you have to admire the man for having total
creative control over his films. Pace be damned, Jarmusch has an A-list actor
and he’s not afraid to keep the camera rolling and get every last drop of
acting gold out of them!
Only
Lovers Left Alive, as you might expect from Jarmusch, is no
straightforward buckets of blood vampire film. You could barely place it in the
horror genre. At no point are any necks chomped on and there is very little
blood to be seen. If you’re expecting 30
Days of Night, you might want to go see that nice person at the till and
get your money back. The best way to describe Only Lovers Left Alive is that it’s a romance where its two leads
just happen to be dead.
Tom Hiddleston (of Loki in Thor and Avengers fame)
is Adam, a centuries old vampire who is tired of his immortal life. He calls
humans “zombies,” disheartened by their short-sightedness and determination to
ruin the world around them. Hiddleston gives a first-rate performance, much of
the film’s humour down to his droll one-liners. Another actor could have made
Adam come across as petulant, but Hiddleston makes his protagonist a likeable
misery.
Tilda Swinton, as Adam’s wife, Eve, is the opposite of Adam.
She is a motherly figure who sees the beauty of even the smallest, most trivial
things. She views people as flawed, that along with their mistakes they are also
capable of doing good. Over the course of the film’s two hours, Eve tries to
restore Adam back to life, to help him become the man he used to be. Swinton,
despite her Oscar win for Michael Clayton,
is an underrated actress, rarely mentioned in the same breath as her peers. She
is one of the very best actresses working today (see her in We Need To Talk About Kevin, for one of
her standout performances) and once again gives everything and more to her
role.
One of the many reasons to see Only Lovers Left Alive is for Hiddleston and Swinton’s husband and
wife duo, both beautiful to look at in an ageless, undead sort-of-way, they
hold your attention throughout.
Mia Wasikowska deserves a mention as Eve’s “sister”, Ava.
If Adam and Eve are world weary souls, then Ava is a babyish teenager trapped
in a woman’s body. She takes her powers for granted, doing whatever she wants
and never thinking of the consequences; Adam and Eve’s peaceful lives thrown into
upheaval when she visits them. Wasikowska is genuinely unnerving, portraying
Ava as this sweet princess who could snap at any moment and do something senseless
and cruel.
John Hurt turns up in only a couple of scenes, yet he is
wonderful and heart-breaking to watch as none other than an undead Christopher
Marlowe. Marlowe is an old man, his body not as everlasting as he thought, yet
he is still the infamous scoundrel who courted so much controversy, occasionally
giving Swinton a mischievous smile.
All of the best vampire films take the well-known rules
and bend them. In Only Lovers Left Alive,
not only do vampires need to worry about sunlight or a stake through the heart,
they can be killed by infected blood. Here, if a vampire drinks the blood of a
drug addict or someone with a terminal illness, this will also kill them. Hiddleston
and Swinton can walk into someone’s home uninvited; however they see this as
bad luck, in much the same way as breaking a mirror or the number thirteen.
While Only Lovers
Left Alive is no horror film, it has an eerie atmosphere thanks to Yorick
Le Saux’s cinematography. Le Saux takes Detroit’s run down streets, that would
look ugly during the daytime, and makes them look strangely beautiful at night.
Even Adam’s house (the closest the film has to a Castle Dracula location) with
its crumbling walls, filled with wires and machinery from decades back, manages
to look like something from one of Grimm’s fairy tales. Tangier, Eve’s home, is
a fine-looking setting, with boats lining the riverside and a labyrinth of passage
ways and cobbled streets.
The only criticism you could have with Only Lovers Left Alive is the pace. I
did occasionally find myself thinking that a couple of scenes could have been
trimmed down, possibly even cut altogether. The film could easily lose ten
minutes from its running time without being ruined.
Jarmusch’s latest won’t be for everyone; there are those
out there that will loathe it, that it’s a waste of two hours. This is not your
typical vampire film. If you’re looking for something at a breakneck speed with
gallons of blood, you’re better off dusting off your copy of Blade. Though if you like a vampire film
that plays around with convention, is intelligent, and dotted with wry, black
humour, then Only Lovers Left Alive
could end up being one of your favourite films of 2014. It isn’t flawless like
Tomas Alfredson’s Let The Right One In
(very few films are!), but is easily up there with the best of the sub-genre.
4 out of 5
Matt
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