WARM BODIES

A mysterious virus has turned anyone infected into a flesh-eating zombie, particularly craving human brains. The few survivors live segregated in city-bunkers and occasionally have to make dangerous raids outside for food and essential supplies, looting abandoned homes and shops. During one of these reconnaissance missions, Julie and her team are attacked by a group of hungry zombies: Julie's boyfriend is killed, and she is kidnapped by R, a young zombie who falls in love with her at first sight. R—who is the very perpetrator of Julie's boyfriend's death—takes the girl to the airport and hides her in a plane, providing her with food and taking care of her. The girl's initial fear and hostility gradually turn into complicity, and when Julie decides to have R accompany her in her attempt to return home, the two must deal with the prejudice of Julie's father and the extremely dangerous 'Stitches,' zombies in the final stage that infest some parts of the city. With 'Warm Bodies,' we are in the territory of popular literary phenomena. As recently happened with 'Harry Potter,' 'Twilight,' and 'Hunger Games,' the film 'Warm Bodies' is born from the great success of a novel that primarily targets adolescents, that internationally labeled literature known as 'young adult.' The novel 'Warm Bodies' was written by the debut author Isaac Marion, who achieved such success with his seven-page online story 'I Am a Zombie Filled With Love' that he was pushed to expand it into a novel. The publisher Adria Books believed in it in 2010 and did well because sales were significant (in Italy, it arrived in 2011 with Fazi Editore), to the point that in January 2013 a prequel in e-book ('The New Hunger') was released, a paperback sequel is in the works, and Summit immediately acquired the film rights, arriving punctually in theaters in February 2013 with a pre-existing cult aura that will surely continue to swell the pockets of the production company that has already given birth to the cinematic 'Twilight.' But what is 'Warm Bodies'? The Seattle Post defined it as a 'zombie romance' in the sense of a love story with zombies, a term that fully summarizes the film's themes. The cinema has not been entirely devoid of stories of love between humans and zombies, especially in the last ten years when the undead have returned to fashion. From 'Zombie Honeymoon' by David Gebroe to 'Zombie Lover' by the Deagol brothers, passing through the French 'Mutants' by David Morlet, there have been odd love stories between humans and zombies, and curiously, they have mostly wandered through the shores of independent cinema. 'Warm Bodies' is therefore the first film that attempts to address this theme from the perspective of mainstream cinema, using the irony that has brought such success to the cinematic undead post-'Shaun of the Dead.' So, a zombie film aimed at a teenage audience, filled with romance and irony. This is the perfect profile for 'Warm Bodies.' At the helm of the direction is not certainly an inexperienced person, but Jonathan Levine, a rather capable director who has so far delighted us with the successful slasher 'All the Boys Love Mandy Lane' and the beautiful drama with Joseph Gordon-Levitt '50/50.' And 'Warm Bodies' also starts off quite well, despite those who have so far launched it as the heir to the concluded saga of 'Twilight.' Levine's film immediately immerses us in the perspective of R, a young zombie who lives in an airport with some of his peers. R's narrating thoughts inform us of how the world has collapsed for reasons that are not even clear, perhaps a virus but it is not clear or simply R does not remember. We immediately enter the mind of a zombie and understand how their memory is tattered (R is the initial of his name, which he can't even remember in full!), their days are all damnably the same and monotonous, and their hunger is acute, especially for human brains, from which they can draw the experiences of the victims, satisfying their own memory gaps. A brilliant and witty beginning that, on the one hand, reminds us of an ultra-indie film like 'I, Zombie' by Andrew Parkinson, and on the other, suggests that there is a sense of novelty and fun. The promise is kept until about halfway through the film; the suspension of disbelief holds the absurd tale of this zombie who manages to overcome his instincts thanks to a teenage crush, and some gags remain with the viewer, such as R's comparison to the decaying zombie from Fulci's 'Zombi 2' and the lesson in walking like a living dead that R teaches Julie not to be discovered, even if taken directly from the cult 'Shaun of the Dead – The Dawn of the Dead.' Even the 'Stitches' work, dangerous living skeletons, a negative evolution of the zombie, that infest some parts of the city and from which it is difficult to escape. Here there are some timid flashes of gore and splatter, but all sufficiently masked not to end up being rated for minors. The collapse occurs in the second half of the film when this ironic and almost surreal atmosphere becomes a full-fledged impossible love story. The irony often descends into unintentional ridicule with the attempts at 'serious' communication among the zombies that make them seem like a parody of people with disabilities. There are attempts at cloying romantic scenes, such as when R (omeo) calls his beloved Julie (t) from below the balcony, and then the incredible final twist that goes against all logic and every mental predisposition. Fine with the happy ending, so is the overused idea of love conquering everything, but 'Warm Bodies' uses this device in an extreme manner, practically trying to concretize in a literal way an abstract concept on which the entire meaning of the film is based: the result, beyond being incredibly sappy, clashes with logic. Perhaps this way the most romantic will be satisfied, but the credibility of the entire work is compromised. Nicholas Hoult stands out in the entire cast, already an awkward boy in 'About a Boy' and young Beast in 'X-Men: The Beginning,' who here gives pallor and a lost look to the zombie protagonist R, capable of carrying the entire enterprise on his shoulders. Supporting him is the not very expressive Teresa Palmer ('I Am Number 4') in the role of Julie, Rob Corrdry ('The Heartbreak Kid') functions very little as the comic actor in the role of M, the zombie friend of R, a typical example of miscasting. In the small role of the father/owner, there is John Malkovich, now trapped in secondary roles where he is only asked to perform. 'Warm Bodies' is therefore a little film with few pretensions that aspires to great success, which it will surely have. The beginning is promising and for half of it, the game is enjoyable, then everything collapses under the weight of targeting, accentuating the romantic aspect to the point of results that are difficult to tolerate and take seriously. What a pity.