Only Lovers Left Alive
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston, Mia Wasikowska
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As a filmmaker at home on the fringes, it seems fitting that Jim Jarmusch has alighted on cinema and literature's ultimate outsiders: vampires. Only Lovers Left Alive is a far cry from the adolescent world of Twilight or the provocative fantasies of True Blood, however. Typically left-field, it offers a woozy romantic comedy, in which the aged – but evergreen – lovers, Adam (Hiddleston) and Eve (Swinton), hook up in Detroit, only to have their love nest disturbed by Eve's wild-child sister (Wasikowska). The film puts a wry Jarmuschian spin on familiar tropes without trying to reinvent the wheel. Impatient viewers may find the pace too slow. But anyone willing to adjust to Jarmusch's laid-back approach should find this sublimely melancholy gem a delight.
