Only Lovers Left Alive
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska, John Hurt
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Rating: 4.5/5
If you are despairing at the vampire film genre, then worry no more as Jim Jarmusch delivers the best movie in this genre for quite some time.
Only Lovers Left Alive sees Jarmusch return to the director's chair for his first movie since The Limits of Control: he has also penned the screenplay.
Set against the romantic desolation of Detroit and Tangier, an underground musician, deeply depressed by the direction of human activities, reunites with his resilient and enigmatic lover.
Their love story has already endured several centuries at least, but their debauched idyll is soon disrupted by her wild and uncontrollable younger sister.
Can these wise but fragile outsiders continue to survive as the modern world collapses around them?
From start to finish, Only Lovers Left Alive is just a beautiful, haunting, and arresting film, with two terrific central performances.
Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton take on the role of vampires Adam and Eve; they both cope with the modern world and immortal life in completely different ways.
Hiddleston is terrific as Adam, the tortured artist who struggles to find place in the world outside his front door. Adam maybe a little sulky and self-indulgent, but Hiddleston never allows it to get to a point where this could become an annoyance.
Swinton is a real chameleon when it comes to acting, and she gives another great performance as Eve: a woman who has embraced her immortal life and an ever-changing world. She is satisfied with her place in it, and lives a full a life as possible.
Together, Hiddleston and Swinton make an excellent team as they have a truly authentic chemistry. The scene where they dance together in the living room is one of the best and most romantic.
There is something deepy seductive and haunting about Only Lovers Left Alive, as Jarmusch put his unmistakable mark on this rather tired genre and breathes new life into it.
If you are a Hiddleston or Swinton fan, then this is a movie that you cannot miss this week. Only Lovers Left Alive is one of the few gems of 2014 so far.
Only Lovers Left Alive is released 21st February.