Warm Bodies

The time has finally arrived - my review of the first movie on my 20 Movies of 2013 "bucket list" (which is what I'm going to call it from now on) - Warm Bodies! :) My husband and I had planned to see Warm Bodies on Valentine's Day after dinner. However, we only gave ourselves an hour and a half to eat before our movie started, and our restaurant was so packed that we had an hour and fifteen minute wait. Needless to say, we missed the show that night, so we watched it the next day at our local theatre.

My overall impression of the movie was ... I liked it a lot. The actors were well-cast in their respective roles, especially the main character R played by Nicholas Hoult. Hoult portrays a conflicted zombie so well, and my favorite part is *spoiler alert* when he eats the brains of the boyfriend Perry and sees for himself what he has become. Also, I think that Rob Corddry gave an excellent performance as M. His transformation from zombie to human is almost as heart-warming as R's.

The only part of the movie that I think was lacking in any way is the ending. While I think that the ending is well-written and it effectively rounds out the emotional journey for our main character, I think that the writers could have explained more how it is possible that a zombie, or "corpse," could come back to life, that is to say a normal human life not a reanimated corpse existence. I do understand that the movie takes place in a "fantasy" world where zombies exist, and as such, it isn't exactly necessary to give specific details of zombie anatomy nor their habits. I do think, however, that those viewers who are familiar with zombie lore from other stories would appreciate more specifics on how this "miracle" of sorts could occur. It would aid in the verisimilitude of the story.

That being said, I think that the movie was well-written, had excellent performances from the cast, and did not have any missteps in direction. I would definitely recommend it to any fans of romantic comedy as well as zombie movie fans as I do not believe that the zombie movie fans will find much action or carnage missing with the romantic element added.

Four out of five stars from me.

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