Only Lovers Left Alive (2014)
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Only Lovers Left Alive Movie Review
Only Lovers Left Alive is a 2014 fantasy drama film directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston. It’s a flawed, but interesting experiment.
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“They only learn when it’s too late“
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A depressed musician reunites with his lover. However, their romance, which has already endured several centuries, is disrupted by the arrival of her uncontrollable younger sister. This is one of those movies that might get better upon subsequent viewings, but viewing it for the first time I was left a bit in the cold to be honest. It’s not the most inviting movie in terms of pace and tone.
Jim Jarmusch is certainly an acquired taste and I tend to both appreciate and be annoyed with his works. The premise of these vampires being alive for centuries and being very meditative on life and their experiences is a sound one and it was a great choice to make a vampire story that is more moody and philosophical. There are some excellent ideas explored here.
But where the film missed the mark for me was in its insistence to focus on the important figures of the past instead of dealing with out protagonists’ arcs more extensively. They were still solidly developed, but even more could have been done with them. The celebrity meeting nature of the story did not appeal to me at all, especially because they used this opportunity to promote some crazy ideas – the Marlowian theory of Shakespeare authorship being particularly focused on and frustratingly so.
Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton were superbly cast as both of them have that pale look to their faces, thus they fit the vampire roles like a glove. Swinton was particularly great in her very strong role. The relationship the two share, however, wasn’t all that well explored in my opinion and I needed more in that area.
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Only Lovers Left Alive finds Jarmusch focusing so much on making cultural references (especially on literature and music), but in doing so he lost the most important plot threads, especially his ideas about mortality. Simply put, the film isn’t nearly as sophisticated as it thinks it is. The technical aspects are all just fine given that the movie is simple and limited in scope. The pacing is way too leisurely, making it difficult for most audiences to engage with it successfully.
Only Lovers Left Alive had a phenomenal premise, but frustrating execution. It’s an admirably different and more philosophical take on a vampire story, one that was propelled by fine performances from Tilda Swinton and Tom Hiddleston, both of them perfectly cast for these roles. But the movie’s leisurely pace and monotonous tone made it difficult for me to engage with it properly. It was also frustrating how Jarmusch was so insistent on making constant cultural references to art, history and literature, thus failing to explore more deeply the important themes about life and mortality.
My Rating – 3.5
This is the tenth and final film in my 4our series where I covered one film per decade that is having an anniversary this year, from 1914 to 2014. It has been a fine run with the best movies being Leon: The Professional, Sansho the Bailiff and The Aviator.
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