WARM BODIES
US, 2013, 98 minutes, Colour.
Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Dave Franco, John Malkovich.
Directed by Jonathan Levine.
The title is better and deeper than might have first been supposed. So is the film.
This has to be the nicest zombie film you are likely to see and Nicholas Hoult as R (he can’t remember his alive name) is the decentest young corpse, even decentest young man you are to see in what is not quite a horror film, more of a hopeful monster film. Which means that as the film opens and we see the devastated city and the trudging corpses, as these zombies are referred to, we see it is a ‘Post-Apocalyptic’ film. By the end, it is a ‘Post Post-Apocalyptic’? film.
R offers a mournful voiceover about his lot, living dead who cannot remember his past, driven by a flesh-fuelled hunger which means that the Corpses are a menace to the surviving humans. R wanders, communicates oddly with his friend M, and joins a rampage in a clinic where the crowd of corpses attack the humans and R kills a young man, Perry (Dave Franco). In devouring his brain, he is able to relive the memories (which is done in flashback). At the clinic was Julie, but R did not kill her. Rather, he takes her to his plane hideout to keep her safe. Teresa Palmer is a strong heroine as Julie.
We are in Beauty and the Beast mythology here. Afraid, she comes to appreciate what R is doing for her and there is an initial fire of love in each of them. Which is important for R because it means that he speak more coherently, play records for Julie, feel for her and not menace her. When she returns home to the safety of the city and to her father, a gung-ho zombie hunter in the form of that sinister-voiced and deadly presence, John Malkovich.
R calls out to Julie who comes out on to her balcony – and there you are with the other mythology (but R doesn’t feel that he needs to take on the name, Romeo).
The film works, despite the odds (and Director Jonathan Levine did make a film called The Wackness!) because it has a lot of heart (and by the end so do a lot of the Corpses). And Nicholas Hoult and Teresa Palmer are able to sustain this makebelieve story, better than the Twilight films. And there is comparatively little gore.
The theme of the film is heart and hope – and there is a particularly hopeful image at the end where the vast separating wall comes down. An allegory for some of the divisions and walls in society today.
1. Surprise impact of the film? A different zombie film? Post-apocalyptic? Post post-apocalyptic? Heart and love?
2. An American zombie story, the American City, devastation, the enclosure, streets, the wall, the airport, planes? The contrast with the home and clinic sequences? Familiar and unfamiliar? The light humorous touch?
3. The musical score, the use of songs, their function for R, for Julie, the Romeo and Juliet mythology, the Beauty and the Beast mythology?
4. R and his voiceover, the tone, the accent, the living dead, the visual lack of expression? The interior intensity? Communication and not communicating? The ability to say words, inability? The importance of feelings, inner feelings? The loss of memories? The hunger, the need for food, human prey? Eating the brains, making the memories live again? did he have a conscience? The possibility for recovery?
5. The walking corpses, their look, the Bonies ? The corpses devouring humans? The Bonies and their giving up, peeling the flesh, skeletons, monsters?
6. The humans, the minority, living in the enclosure, the defence, the defence forces, the leader, his speech, morale? The death of his wife? Tough, alienation from his daughter? His troops, the training, shooting, the squads?
7. Julie, her relationship with her father, her friendship with Nora, her love for Perry, the work and the laboratories, the guns, defence? The need for medication? The corpses and their attack, fear, are killing Perry, Nora hiding, Julie and her fear, R taking her?
8. R and M, their trying to communicate, the bond between them, awkward, trying to find words, M and his changing, his contact with R?
9. R and his saving Julie, taking her to the plane, the escape from the corpses, her fear, wary of R? R and his care, the blanket, the music, reacting to Julie’s escape, her being trapped, his fighting the corpses? Pursuing her, saving her again, her need for food, his finding it, his disguising Julie with blood, urging her to walk like a corpse? Keeping her with him, her escape, giving her Perry’s watch?
10. The effect on R, Perry’s memories, reliving them, the visualising of Perry’s childhood, parents, growing up, the friendship with Julie, love for her, the bright color and sunshine? A past world? His love for Julie, his remembering the event in the clinic?
11. His being able to speak better, communicating? Going for the drive, the exhilaration, the crash and the end?
12. Julie’s departure, his decision to go to the city, his becoming more human, going to the house, invading the guards, the Romeo and Juliet balcony sequence? Coming into the house, Julie having explained her experience with R to Nora? Nora accepting him?
13. M and his changing, the corpse group, becoming more human, the confronting the Bonies?
14. The plan to talk to Julie’s father, the makeup and the transformation of R? The streets, security, the guns, the father and his hostility, wanting to shoot R? The escape? Julie escaping as well? The racing through the landscapes?
15. Meeting the group, M and his solidarity with the corpses, their gaining humanity? Confronting the Bonies?
16. The fight, the Bonies on the roof, the soldiers coming, the surprise, watching the corpses fight the Bonies? Their joining them?
17. The leader, fears, attitude, the phone call, his disbelief, change?
18. The end of the Bonies, death, languishing?
19. The theme of exhuming the dead? The corpses becoming human again, the needs of our own, the humans helping them, R and Julie and their future?
M and his talking to the girl? Happiness?
20. The impact of the war collapsing?
21. The film as a fable? An allegory for divided communities in the contemporary world?
