Review: Only Lovers Left Alive

Snap Judgment: A strange new take on the vampire love story. Tilda Swinton (Eve) is a bibliophile who embraces life and its little joys and loves, soaking her senses in Tangier and hanging out with Christopher Marlow. Tom Hiddleston (Adam) is a morose, brooding, Lord Byron/Hamlet who spends his days moping and playing music in a cluttered Detroit Victorian. Adam and Eve are centuries-old vampiric lovers who have unending love and affection for each other, without the destructive, suffocating love of most recent vampire tales (*cough*Twilight*cough*). Eve arrives in Detroit when she senses that Adam's brooding is becoming more despondent than usual. Then Eve's irresponsible, childish, impulsive, little sister Mia Wasikowska (Ava) flits into Detroit, sensing an opportunity to freeload. Events start spiraling from there.

Only Lovers Left Alive is a languid film. It's more a character piece than anything else, content to observe two mature lovers who are comfortable with their relationship and comfortable enough with each other's bodies that they cuddle together like puppies. They are opposites attracted, who have settled into each other and worn away all the sharp edges. It's a beautiful, touching romance and frankly nothing like I've seen in cinema, where the drama tends to be in the form of the romantic partners sparring/fighting/hurting/betraying. 

Adam and Eve's pasts are left largely uncharted. We know they had a third wedding sometime in the late 19th century, that Eve is besties with Christopher Marlowe, that Adam hung out with Lord Byron, and that Adam has given his music to famous artists. That's about it. It's also not clear if Ava is Eve's biological little sister or some vampire sire little sister. There's little explored about vampires, except that they do drink blood and go out at night. As much as I want more (I would watch a TV show of Adam and Eve lounging around for 5 seasons), Adam and Eve's past and this movie's vampire mythology are so beside the point of the film, that it doesn't feel like anything is missing. It doesn't matter, really, how Adam and Eve got to where they are. The focus is on this little slice of their very, very long lives.  

Grade: B+

Final Verdict: A slow, beautiful character study of centuries-old lovers who happen to be vampires. 

If You Like This, Watch: The Double, Let the Right One In, Snowpiercer