'Warm Bodies' Got a Hungry Heart

Out now on DVD is Jonathan Levine's Warm Bodies, a zombie romance (a zombromance) that did considerably well at the box office. The film is based on Isaac Marion's novel of the same name. Levine's previous films, which include The Wackness and 50/50, have pitter pattered around broken hearts, as does his latest Warm Bodies.

To keep Julie (Teresa Palmer) safe from an undead feeding fest in a post-zombie apocalyptic airport, a zombie in a hoodie known as "R" (Nicholas Hoult) hides the girl in an abandoned airplane - a sanctuary where the zomboy can listen to vinyl and kick back after a long day's flesh feast in his reclining aisle seat. R looks a bit like a descendant of Edward Scissorhands; he's a tender and loving zomboy, struck by an unexpected love. Julie can see that good in him, even though he's the one who had earlier eaten her boyfriend Perry's brains in order to gain chunks of his memories. Julie makes R's dead heart slightly light up inside, and his body gradually starts to get warmer, bringing the color back in his face. You see when zombies start to remember love, it will make their cadaverous hearts skip a beat. But when Julie sneaks R behind "the wall," she must hide her zombie boyfriend from her dad John Malkovich, leader of the human union living behind it.

An earnest depiction of undead love not crushed by the state of humankind, Warm Bodies is charming, almost beautiful - and it's cheese isn't low fat. Warm Bodies is a fresh and unique take on the zombie genre because we feel the emotions of the undead through Nicholas Hoult's narrated perspective. We start to understand the zombies at times, who have been cursed with the undead state they're doomed to stay in. These beings have thoughts other than consuming every human in sight, and they can control their instincts, even make out feelings. We finally get to see behind those glossy eyes we've always wanted to. Warm Bodies is a quest for human acceptance, where love conquers ultimate death.

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