God, I hate Hollywood!

Rating: 8/10 (20 March 2013)

I may be wrong to feel special here, but I think I've had the fortune of reading Marion's book after the first trailer of the film had been released. So, I had a face to put to the characters, and every passage of the book was a delight for my imagination. So, in many ways, I had already seen the best version of the film, right here in my head.
Having said that, I went to see this film with high expectations. And, mind you, most of them were met, quite elegantly and actually managing to bring more definition to the pictures inside my head (Malkovich as Grigio, the 'Boneys' and the desolated cityscape being some of them). The story was often so closely tied to the narrative in the book that at times I felt as if I was re-reading it. The characters' lines stay true to the original context, and a lot of the very funny scenes in the book were played flawlessly. Nicholas Hoult is perfect as R. He gets the 'shrug' down to an art, and even though they've reduced the internal monologue and made him more talkative than in the book, he stays true to the original character.
Adding to all that is the soundtrack -- the incredibly well chosen soundtrack, nothing any other Zombie movie could ever hope for. Bruce Springsteen. Bob Dylan. Guns N'Roses. Feist! M83! In perfect sync with their scenes. This was not a zombie movie. This wasn't a rom-com. This felt like one of those films that wasn't made for the box office, that wanted to transmit the feeling of the book, and added music as topping.
-- spoilers start here --
Unfortunately, Levine decided to skip on what I think are some key scenes. The zombies' evolution seems too abrupt (M becomes quite chatty all of the sudden) and we don't really get too much of a glimpse into their world. As for Julie's character - while she still transmits the feeling of liveliness really well, there's something missing about her - she just doesn't feel as innocent and as candid. It's not about Teresa Palmer (she's quite good), it has probably to do with the rather short run time of the film. I feel that 10 more minutes might have made a great difference in terms of the cohesion of the story.
But it was actually the decision to make the climax into a "real" zombie action scene, a "mano a mano" fight with the 'Boneys', something to bring together the humans and 'corpses', that feels the most out of place. That's why I hate Hollywood, and that's probably the only bone I would pick against this film.
So there you have it. A film with a fresh approach, an excellent soundtrack, some very funny scenes involving Rob Corddry, quite a few heart-warming (pun not intended) scenes, and even a zombie fight to keep the moviegoers satisfied. If you haven't read the book and don't have a complete repulsion for zombies, you'll find it even better.
8/10