Only Lovers Left Alive Review

Howdy once again ladies and gents, once agin I resurface from the depths of the earth to deliver a new film review. I have already reviewed Her and The Monuments Men and my final review for today is Only Lovers Left Alive. I found the trailer for this online back in December and was intrigued just because it was a different kind of vampire film, plus it had Tom Hiddleston in it so it was gonna be a mandatory watch regardless. So how did it turn out? Read on and find out.

So the story for this film is as follows:

“Adam (Hiddleston), an underground musician reunites with his lover for centuries (Swinton) after he becomes depressed and tired with the direction human society has taken. Their love is interrupted and tested by her wild and uncontrollable little sister (Wasikowska).”

I thought that the story was pretty interesting and definitely had some nice themes relating to the longevity of life and love. The atmosphere and tone of the film is lovely and by switching from Los Angeles to Tangier offers up some moments of great scenery and culture changes. My only issue with the film is the slow pacing. At times it felt like the characters were just completely zoned out or doing nothing of any great importance. I feel like if the pace had been sped up or some of the time in between some of the key scenes had been cut down then I would have enjoyed the film a lot more.

When it comes to the cast they are all very good and give some great performances. Let’s start with Tom Hiddleston as Adam. I really liked him in this film, his character is very lethargic, mellow reclusive and has very small needs. Only Adam has interest in music and his lover, but when you mess with his stuff or his groove he has one hell of a temper. Hiddleston was awesome, I’ve only mainly seen him as Loki in the Marvel films, but I wanted to see how he put his acting skills to use in other films and he does so very well in this film. Similarly Tilda Swinton is wonderful as Eve, she is very out-going, whimsical, caring and cunning too. I only know Swinton as Jadis, the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia films, luckily I see that she is a capable actress who is captivating and very likeable. Together Swinton and Hiddleston have great screen chemistry and vibe off of each other very well.

Anton Yelchin was another strong person as Ian, his character was very nice guy personality-wise and he was surprisingly chilled out about his friendship with Adam. Yelchin was just fun to watch and his look in this film really reminded me of John Frusciante, the ex-guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers haha. Also Mia Wasikowska was good as Ava, this an annoyingly energetic person who just wanted to be adventurous and have fun (much like most teenagers/young adults these days). Wasikowska was quite nice and surprisingly she was a lot better and has kind of erased her performance as Alice from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. John Hurt was nice as Marlowe offering us a wise, old and yet quite funny elder vampire and lastly Jeffrey Wright was cool as Doctor Watson, again Wright is showing off roles very different from his recurring role in Boardwalk Empire as he is quite funny and light-hearted here.

In conclusion Only Lovers Left Alive is a breath of fresh air in this sea of vampire films and TV shows, it is actually very realistic, dynamic, different and creepy with some great performances. I feel like if the pacing had been a bit quicker and some of the actions of the characters had transpired a little faster I would have liked this film a little more. That being said it is a very different kind of vampire film that I would recommend. P.S. Any ladies who are fans of Tom Hiddleston who want to see him topless best give this film a look too. 😛

Rating: 7.5/10 (An interesting and strange take on the life of vampires)

So what did you think of Only Lovers Left Alive? Have you seen it or are you gonna watch it? Whatever your thoughts be sure to leave them in the comment section below and I’ll see ya on the next film review yo. 😀