Only Lovers Left Alive (2014) – Jim Jarmusch

With Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, John Hurt and Mia Wasikowska

The synopsis of Only Lovers Left Alive in a nutshell: Adam lives in Detroit (USA) and Eve lives in Tangier (Morocco), they are lovers and are both vampires. We will follow them on their peregrinations, reunion and lives.

Don’t be disheartened by what seem to be an umpteenth teenage movie surfing on the vampire theme. Please don’t and keep it mind that it a Jim Jarmusch’s movie. Yes, main characters are vampire, but no it is not the topic of the movie. To tell the truth if you are looking for a vampire movie go on your way. The vampire nature of the characters is barely addressed: we see fangs once, know that they drink blood and don’t go out at night. That’s it!

The movie is centered on the two main characters: Adam and Eve. Adam is dark hair man, a musician tormented by his past lives and full of spleen. He lives by night in the dark city of Detroit were he compose music. Eve is an optimistic white hair woman, book addict, who lives in the bright city of Tangier. They will be reunited in Detroit where Eve will bring her light to Adam. But this reunion will be disrupted by the arrival of Eve’s sister: Ava, played by Mia Wasikowska. Around them there is also Kit Marlowe the playwright, played by John Hurt. He is also the blood provider of Eve and he decided to withdraw from the world.

The rhythm of the movie is slow and spellbinding. We can recognize the contemporary world, but it seems that the characters are out of it, such as in Ghost Dog (1999), where the main character seemed to be stranger to his own world. It is like we were looking at a parallel universe where characters were not affected by the outside. But it is just an appearance as they have to deal with “zombies” (the humans), in order to survive. This notion is quite interesting as they consider themself more alive that the leaving, which is true if we consider the time that they have passed on earth.

As often in Jim Jarmusch’s movie the travel has its importance, just as in Broken Flowers (2005), and characters find in it a way to get away from their lives and think about themselves, such as in their road trip in Detroit by night.

This movie is poetic and mind-blowing. It will soothe you slowly and let you a pleasant feeling.