Cute can only get you so far. In the case of WARM BODIES, this is best seen in a metaphorical sense when the teenage zombie R drives in his lost-and-found BMW 4Z with his main squeeze Julie on the tarmacs of an unidentified airport. The car gases and brakes in rapid succession, then drives perfectly in an easy manner before suffering a minor crash at the end. The film isn't an uproarious black comedy it was advertised as but a melancholic, indie dive into the TWILIGHT pool. This mood gets suffocating, never giving the characters a chance to breath from all of the over-froth direction and the "serious" plot. It's still a slight delight, though.
R (Nicholas Hoult) doesn't remember much of his past or what caused the zombie apocalypse. He makes the most of what's allowed to be a free-walking zombie, such as his residence inside a derelict airplane and his rampant kleptomania of snatching souvenirs, like vinyl records that produce a "more real" sound. During a zombie trek for food in the city, he and a few of his colleagues, including his best friend M (Rob Corddry), encounter a group of pretty and young armed resistance from the local walled-off human civilization. There, he love-at-first-sights Julie (Teresa Palmer), who just so happens to be the daughter of the leader (John Malkovich) and a Juliet stereotype. Of course, you might have figured as much with the latter from the first paragraph. Anyway, R brings her back to his residence, keeping her with him in his chotchkies-filled plane. Eventually, through knight-and-princess mentality and a little bit of Stockholm Syndrome, they sort-of fall in love. This emotion causes R to experience weird side effects to his zombie body, including a slight heartbeat and a normal reaction to rain. R's metamorphosis, which later begins to spread to the other zombies, poses a problem both to Malkovich's army and the "Bonies", a group of zombies that have given up their fleshy appearances to be vicious and badly CG-ed Harryhausen skeletons.
The film is written and directed by Jonathan Levine, who previously pulled double-duty with the indie non-starter THE WACKNESS. He also did the more respected and equally themed to this movie 50/50, though that film had a script by Seth Rogen, a man who knows when to laugh even with serious subjects. Despite some funny gags in the prologue and crumbled throughout the picture, he has sucked the life out of the prime material. The fact that this film lacks the bite of the Disney-produced zombie comedy MY BOYFRIEND'S BACK tells you how misguided and paltry Levine put into it. Hoult does his best with what he can, getting to shine in some crucial scenes, and even Palmer gets to show some chops but they have to work with a romance angle that never feels brave or challenging as it truly is. Also, Levine tacked on a dumber-than-bricks voice-over to remind the sleepy viewers of the obvious or noteworthy. For instance, we learn and see that zombies can't sleep; two-thirds into the movie, right before R starts to fall to sleep, Hoult's VO chimes in again that "Zombies can't fall to sleep", only to then feature R having a dream where the inhabitants say that zombies can't sleep.
Though the failed Romeo and Juliet storyline gets a bit toxic, there is some emotional moments or interesting ideas, like how when a zombie eats a person's brain, they get to experience their memories in a festive, scrapbook-like viewpoint. Also, Rob Corddry is pretty much the best thing going for the feature and a more ideal main character, as he balances the tightrope between a starving zombie and someone who once had a life and a loved one. Not to mention, he often delivers the best gags and scene-closing lines. If you can take the stench and handle the groan-worthy PG-13 rated cutting, the film may be a pleasant watch for couples and the lonely hearts of the world.
FINAL REVIEW: 3 / 5
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