Review of Warm Bodies (2013) by Alexandre B — 07 Mar 2017
In Warm Bodies, director Jonathan Levine gives us Shakespeare in a world of a zombie apocalypse. This is not your traditional zombie movie. This is also not your traditional Shakespeare. So, if you are looking for long soliloquies in blank verse or gruesome blood-bathing cannibalism, this movie is not for you.
Not that there isn't some casual brain eating or the internal dilemma of "to be, or not to be" a zombie, because there is. But for a movie that incorporates both, it is to be watched with expectation of neither for it to successfully work.
Levine has taken elements of a Shakespearean tragedy and a horror film, and turned the genres on their heads-into a well-acted, light-hearted, witty comedy with a message. But where, you wonder, in this apocalyptic world of a brain-munching zombie falling in love with one of the last remaining humans is Shakespeare? There are the obvious nods at the bard from the director, like the names of R (Romeo), Julie (Juliet), M (Mercutio), Perry (Paris), and Nora (Nurse), and yes, the iconic "balcony scene," which is brilliantly done in the context of the movie.
There are also the two warring entities, which the two characters are a part of, turned from Montague and Capulet to zombie and human, respectively. But Levine did not go through the trouble of incorporating Shakespeare into a zombie apocalypse for a few names and a girl standing on a balcony.
Where Shakespeare really comes in is at the crux of what Romeo and Juliet is about, which is that life and love are synonymous. Juliet comes back from "death" for love, and Romeo dies because he cannot live without his love.
In Warm Bodies, Levine is giving his viewers just that. At the heart (an image that is also repeated throughout) of the film is the very concept that love is the cure for death. Levine, very meticulously and ingeniously, presents to us the synonymy of life with love, and by doing so shows the complexity and multiplicity of Shakespeare, and why he is universal and timeless.
This review of Warm Bodies (2013) was written by Alexandre B on 07 Mar 2017.
Warm Bodies has generally received positive reviews.
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