Delightful

Rating: 8/10 (12 February 2013)

In a post apocalyptic world, we learn (in a strangely articulate voice-over from the zombie who we come to know as R) that zombies prefer to eat brains because this gives them the memories of the meal, making them feel more alive: it also prevents the corpse reanimating). Also, it seems, that when zombies are particularly far gone, they devolve into skeletal scavengers called Bonies. Having eaten the brains of non-zombie Perry, R feels a strange bond with his girlfriend Julie and kidnaps her. The feelings he experiences gradually begin to bring him back to life, and rub off on the rest of the zombie community. But will that prevent Julie's father, leader of the human enclave, from blowing R's brains out on sight?
Warm Bodies lays claim to being the first zombie comedy rom-com and, delightfully, it manages to succeed in all three genres, as well as being a fairly specific transplant of Romeo and Juliet (R and Julie) into the zombie world, complete with balcony scene. It is extremely well staged, the makeup is good, and the cast all perform very well (Nicholas Hoult is terrific as R). The Bonies don't always convince, and R's lucid voice-over would have been better recounting what had happened (where it would have been credible) rather than what is happening (where it isn't).
But overall, this is very successful and very good fun.