Review of Byzantium (2013) by Thomas W — 28 Sep 2013

Byzantium is a film that will take some patience and time to get into as it isn't a run-of-the-mill vampire flick and some of the thick British accents of its cast members might distract some of the American audience.

The film has some beautiful imagery (even the posters are beautiful) of a run-down, coastal resort city in England and the acting is quite good; but director Neil Jordan (The Crying Game, Mona Lisa, Interview with a Vampire) has a few problems wrapping everything up towards the story's end leaving one with a few head-scratching questions.

Byzantium is the name of an old, majestic hotel whose heydays have passed where two young women take refuge while on the run from something in the past that is slowly catching up with them. The younger girl, Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan - The Lovely Bones), is a melancholy young woman with few friends whose older and much-flashier friend, Clara (Gemma Arterton - Quantum of Solace), resorts to turning tricks and luring men into traps for their money to keep them alive.

The women are keeping a deadly secret and are pursued by a group of men who believe the women are dangerous and threaten their very existence. If the world knew who/what these women were, they would most surely turn against them and as these men want them dead .

.. it is these two women versus the world although they have one kind but unwitting ally in Noel (Daniel Mays - Atonement) who has taken a liking to Clara. The problem Jordan encounters is trying to incorporate the many flashbacks that are necessary to complete the story; but he has a great eye for moody atmosphere and dread as Byzantium uses some lush reds and golds but is also drowned in a gloomy gray fog.

I ended up liking Byzantium ... few vampire films are overly interesting anymore as they've become teenage daydream material. This one isn't ... there is dreary darkness here and Arterton is one to watch.