Only Lovers Left Alive – Film Review
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt and Mia Waiskowska
Release Date: Out Now
Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), two centuries-old vampire lovers living in the contemporary world, reunite in Detroit after a casual estrangement. As Adam ponders the decline of richness and culture in the living world, he contemplates suicide, while Eve tries to revive his enthusiasm and the two reminisce about their past and possible future in Only Lovers Left Alive, the latest film from writer/director Jim Jarmusch.
The film also has performances by Anton Yelchin, Mia Wasikowska, Jeffrey Wright and John Hurt who plays Christopher Marlowe, the 16th century poet, reinterpreted to be still around as a vampire.
The only other two of Jarmusch’s films that I had seen prior to this were Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai and Coffee and Cigarettes, two films that I found thoroughly entertaining, and I was pleased to find there was a similarly engaging and hypnotic atmosphere in Only Lovers Left Alive.
The film has no real plot and merely follows its main and surrounding characters over what is a somewhat pivotal point in their lives and what’s interesting about this is how a pivotal moment would play out for characters that have lived for hundreds of years (although I’m well aware that vampires technically aren’t alive, but you know what I mean).
Unsurprisingly, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Anton Yelchin and Mia Wasikowska give excellent performances, along with Jeffrey Wright who doesn’t appear as much as the others, but it’s really Tom Hiddleston that steals the show, and rightly so as it is his character that the film mainly focuses on.
Hiddleston excellently portrays what I see as an intelligent and greatly experienced mind that has now become bored and dramatically alienated by the living world, done in a way that is relatable in a contemporary sense but also engaging in the context of an escapist fantasy. His, and the rest of the cast’s sense of humour certainly doesn’t go amiss either as Jarmusch, typically as I understand it, provides witty moments of self awareness along the way.
There are some very interesting ideas and details brought forward in the duration of the film, many of them small and subtle, but I think Jarmusch has done well to slightly expand on the vampire genre and allow it to come into the 21st Century. There are however, some problems.
In the end, it’s more the ideas that are attempted that are more endearing than the execution itself. By no means would I call this film a failed experiment but yet I don’t think it lives up to its full potential. There are some eccentric moments between the vampire characters that I think are too silly and although they’re few and far between, I think they break the atmosphere.
You could argue that vampire lore is eccentric by nature but I think, for these few moments, there was a possibility for something more haunting and simple but sadly that’s not the end result. The movie does get into your head but it’s not as disturbing or frightening as it could have been. Those may be the wrong adjectives to use, but I don’t think it hits you as hard as it could have.
The film also plays with a theme on the development of pop culture but it never evolves into a succinct message of any kind and while, what I think it was trying to say was interesting, I don’t think it says an awful lot.
And above all else, the film is just a bit too long. It does well to stay interesting despite only so much going on in front of the screen, but there are those last few scenes that feel like the film doesn’t know where to go and meanders a bit, although I must admit, I did like how the film worked out in wrapping up.
It is still, however, one of the best vampire movies I’ve seen in a long time and a smart, atmospheric drama with some good fantasy elements. I definitely can recommend it to any horror or vampire film aficionado, not to mention Jarmusch fan. If you’re not too interested maybe give it a miss but otherwise it’s a very engaging and entertaining watch.
Score: 3.5/5
Written by Sèamus Hanly
