Forget everything you know, and every pre-conception you may have about "the vampire film" genre. Only Lovers Left Alive will tear them all up and instantly render them inert; it is I feel a truly remarkable, beautiful film, and easily the greatest "vampire film" ever made.
Jim Jarmusch's raw, focused, intimate, noir vampiric feature depicts the lives of vampires in the modern world, and of two vampires in love. Sounds like pretty much any other film with vampires, right? Wrong. What we are treated to with the tale of Adam and Eve (played by Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton) is a luscious, incredibly grounded and incredibly powerful dual performance. The two central characters instantly come across as very old, and very world-weary, and also still very much in love. Add to this coursing central story added appearences from the likes of the young, beautiful Mia Wasikowska, and the mature but legendary John Hurt, and on sheer acting talent alone you have a winner here.
Just as the vampiric lovers find reasons to wake every night, so to do you find constant vigor and delight in watching their story. Again unlike most vampire films, you do not need origins or background stories, as this film slaps you right into the middle of a relationship that has been going on for centuries, and Hiddleston and Swinton are so insanely great in this, that they make their characters instantly believable and still incredibly fresh and nuanced.
Tom Hiddleston (in this film getting a break from the massively epic nature of Loki and the Marvel universe) gets to prove here once again how much of an evolving, hard-hitting talent he is. Full of dry wit, cut off drama and intense emotion all at the same time as Adam; his bloodsucking leading man is superb. Equally matching him in brilliance is the sublime Tilda Swinton who captures a great mix of ethereal beauty and intelligent grit as Eve. Together these two not only make the most stunning vampire couple ever captured on film (Twilight?! PAH!) but also one of the most beautiful and captivating on screen couples of all time, in my view.
You may say that Mia Wasikowska as Ava has quite a fleeting time in Only Lovers Left Alive. However I think Jarmusch has got this just right. In getting Ava in and out of the film in a whirlwind, of excitement, youthful passion, quite a bit of blood spilling and ultimately chaotic consequences, the director has added another interesting string to this film's bow, without detracting too much from the a fore mentioned brilliance of Hiddleston and Swinton. We also get another brief encounter with Wasikowska and Anton Yelchin who, whilst having a fairly minor part, still deserves credit too. Finally, to add yet another and an overwhelming dose of sheer class, quality and acting brilliance - we have the flawless Sir John Hurt as Christopher Marlowe. Again, in keeping with not only the emotive greatness but the intriguing historic depth of this vampire tale, Hurt as the Christopher Marlowe, the vampire (who also in this version apparently faked his own death and was responsible for the penning of most of Shakespeare's works) might have been seen as a step too far in terms of quirky, but instead it was genius! John Hurt yet again brings the necessary amounts of gravitas and soothing presence that we know and love him for, plus his interplay with Swinton and Hiddleston is joyous to watch.
As you can guess, I quite like this film. Vampire films in the past have always been a bit 'meh' for me; I could take them or leave them. If you insist on taking Only Lovers Left Alive as strictly another "vampire film" then you must see that it is a fantastically unique interpretation of such. And if like me you see it as a genre-less film that happens to be about vampires, then you must also see like me that it is truly unique again too. For me, Only Lovers Left Alive is a terrific, understated, beautifully envisioned piece of modern cinema, vampires or not.
No comments:
Post a Comment