Review by Nia Edwards-Behi
Sometimes different things you love come together with a promise of something great. When I read the words ‘Tom Hiddleston’ and ‘vampires’ I very much knew that Only Lovers Left Alive was going to be *my* film. Throw in the names Jim Jarmusch, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, and heck even Mia Wasikowska and Anton Yelchin, and by god there’s a film that has a great deal of expectation to live up to. Sometimes, when I really look forward to a film, I build it up and build it up until I’m so excited about it I might burst – often, those expectations are met (I know what I like, after all), but sometimes, they’re not. Sometimes, however, a film can seem to be so perfect in synopsis that I start not to look forward to it at all, for fear of the reality of the film not quite meeting the expectation of it. This sort of apprehensive anticipation is exactly how I’ve felt about Only Lovers Left Alive for some time now. I’m pleased to say, then, that the film took my breath away, despite not being entirely what I expected.
I’ve recently, repeatedly, expressed my adoration of Xan Cassavetes’s excellent vampire film Kiss of the Damned. I was expecting something of a similar tone of Only Lovers Left Alive – a brooding but sexy throwback to the time when all vampires were decadent, gorgeous, violent and filthy rich grown ups. That’s not quite what I got from the film. Instead, Only Lovers Left Alive is almost like a spiritual sequel – those decadent vampires have now been alive just a little bit too long, and are desperately trying to find the joy in their privileged lives again. The film tells the tale of Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton), vampires who have been together for centuries. The pair has spent time apart, not because of any argument or falling out, but due to Adam’s brooding desire to stay in one place and work on his music, while Eve desires a life of travel and exoticism. Eve leaves Morocco to rejoin Adam in Detroit, where he is despairing at the state of humankind. Their reunion is interrupted by the unwelcome arrival of Eve’s wild little sister, Ava (Mia Wasikowska), which eventually forces Adam and Eve to make rash decisions which lead them to an uncertain fate.
Only Lovers Left Alive is not a tidy film. Tonally it veers all over the place, from melodrama, to black humour, to total silliness, to distanced abstraction, to kitchen sink. I have no doubt that this will be massively off-putting for anyone who doesn’t otherwise find themselves immediately won over by the story-world and the characters. I enjoyed the uneven nature of the film, though, as the tonal instability somewhat matched the narrative. Jarmusch’s direction is languid, following Adam and Eve at the pace they themselves take: slow. They’re comfortable with their immortality and in no hurry at all with their day to day lives. Jarmusch’s vampires are decadent, in that they have seemingly unending funds, but their indulgences are as much artistic as they are material. The bohemian nature of these vampires results quite tellingly in their disconnect from the human society with whom they attempt to live peacefully, though hidden away from.
The cast was naturally the main draw of this film for me. I wondered for the first 15 minutes or so whether Hiddleston was somewhat miscast in the role of Adam, the tortured, Byronic rock musician whose dissatisfaction with the world around him seems to be impacting upon his music-making. It’s a strange role for Hiddleston, but ultimately he owns it completely. This is particularly marked once Adam is reunited with Eve. Swinton seems tailor-made to play a vampire (how has it taken this long?!) and she’s brilliant as the free-spirited Eve. Together, Swinton and Hiddleston have a wonderfully strange chemistry befitting the strangeness of the relationship. The supporting cast is equally strong. Anton Yelchin as Ian, Adam’s only direct contact with outside world, and John Hurt as Marlowe, a very old friend of Eve’s in Morocco, offer very interesting counter-points to each other. Ian is young, and fawns over Adam and his music, while Marlowe is very old, and a supportive but harsh friend to Eve. The fates of both also serve as interesting parallels, which I won’t divulge here. Highlight of the supporting cast is definitely Mia Wasikowska – I’ve enjoyed many of her roles, but she’s never really blown me away. Here, she is electric as the petulant, unsympathetic and downright annoying Ava, little sister to Eve. It’s a surprisingly brief role, but she owns the screen when she’s on it. Jeffrey Wright also appears in the film as the curiously-named Dr. Watson, a medical professional who supplies Adam with blood. The scenes between the two men are clinical, abstract, and yet laced with humour, standing out very much from the rest of the film’s style. They’re wonderful to watch, though, and some of my favourite moments from the film, though almost entirely removed from the main narrative thrust.
There is a lot that I loved about Only Lovers Left Alive, though I’ve no doubt that it’s not a film made to everyone’s taste. I might add that it’s barely a horror film, past the fact that it’s a story concerning vampires, but in some ways that’s apt. We’ve seen vampires done in many different ways and this might be as much a meditation on the vampire trope as it is a meditation on the ills of society and creative expression. All in all, it’s probably a film that gazes a little bit too much at its navel, but my, what an attractive navel it is.
Only Lovers Left Alive hits cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 21st February, via Soda Pictures.