More Brains than Your Average Rom Com

Rating: 8/10 (6 May 2020)

Zombies have been all the rage as of late, with undead themed movies and TV shows reaching near saturation point. Naturally this has resulted in a fair number of parodies, each with their own take on the genre. Zombieland mashed gory horror with a road movie. Shaun of the Dead was The Office with zombies. And now Warm Bodies reimagines the zombie apocalypse as a rom com in which love is you need to recover your humanity.
It starts predictably enough with a zombie eating a young man's brains. Only in the process he gains his victim's memories, plus his feelings for his girlfriend- who the zombie proceeds to save and take home with him. And from there love eventually blossoms, with wider implications for relations between humanity and zombie-kind.
I know: on the face of it, the idea of Zombies coming back to life by learning to love sounds like a really stupid idea. It's one that could easily have dissolved into sappiness or pure ridiculousness. But this movie manages to make it work, with hilarious and sometimes heartwarming results. It works partly because it's stated clearly and very early on that in the context of this movie Zombism is a metaphor for emotional detachment and feeling dead inside. And of course, the cure for that is personal connections, especially love. So in that framework the premise mostly makes sense. It's actually believable, if scientifically impossible, even by the standards of zombie movies.
The premise also works because the protagonist is so likeable and adorably awkward. For a zombie he's a really nice guy. He eats the brains of the living, but he feels really bad about it. He sort of remembers being human and wishes he could go back. He even has a best friend, kind of. And his constant internal monologue is charmingly geeky and kind of neurotic, like Michael Cera in one of his better roles. And things only get cuter and more awkward as his relationship with his new girlfriend starts to unfold.
At first, she's naturally afraid for her life, and he nervously tries not to scare her any more. It's quite charming to see her feelings for him gradually develop into non-revulsion, then trust, then something approaching love. The movie wisely takes its time with this, never rushing or forcing the relationship. The added twist also fixes some of the problems plague most romantic comedies. For once, there's a good reason for the awkwardness and stupid misunderstandings that get in the way of their love. He literally can't talk to her. And she has a much stronger reason than usual for not wanting to bring him home to dad.
Just as interesting as the relationship itself is the gradual transformation back life to that accompanies it. Watching him regain his humanity bit by bit is quite inspiring, especially when the effects prove contagious.
The one major criticism I have is that the movie kind of wimped out and never made a major reveal between characters that should have been a major part of the plot. And admittedly Warm Bodies isn't very scary, even compared to Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead. But there are some pretty frightening scenes at the beginning, and a good amount of action and suspense towards the end. And above all, it's a very sweet and surprisingly smart romantic comedy. The zombies may be lifeless and brain-dead, but the movie isn't.