Only Lovers Left Alive

Only Lovers Left Alive follows aging vampires Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) as they reunite after spending years apart, with the movie detailing the couple’s efforts to cope with a variety of annoyances and problems (including the sudden arrival of Eve’s wild, freespirited young sister). Filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, along with cinematographer Yorick Le Saux, has infused Only Lovers Left Alive with a slow, dreamy atmosphere that proves impossible to resist, with the movie’s heightened feel perpetuated by the stars’ captivating performances and, especially, by Carter Logan and Jozef van Wissem’s hypnotic score. The mesmerizing vibe initially goes a long way towards compensating for the pointedly uneventful narrative, as Jarmusch seems content to eschew character development and plot advances in favor of a very specific (and palpable) mood. And although it does work for a little while, Only Lovers Left Alive, perhaps inevitably, reaches a point at which it begins to demonstrably run out of steam – with Jarmusch’s meandering modus operandi paving the way for a second half that is, generally speaking, more sleep-inducing than entertaining. (It doesn’t help, either, that the filmmaker has instructed his actors to deliver their dialogue in a whispery, mumbly manner, which ensures that the viewer is left straining to understand the majority of the characters’ conversations.) The movie subsequently limps to its anticlimactic and rather abrupt finish, and it’s ultimately rather clear that Only Lovers Left Alive is just unable to sustain one’s interest from start to finish – which is too bad, of course, given that Jarmusch has imbued this distinctive world with a tremendous amount of appealing style.

** out of ****