Warm Bodies (2013)

Warm Bodies  (2013)  Starring Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, John Malkovich.

Rated PG-13 for some language and zombie violence.

Let me say from the beginning that the message for this movie was never very hard to grasp. It’s in the previews!  So I know that I am cheating just a little bit by choosing such an easy mark.

Quick Plot Synopsis:  The Zombie apocalypse has happened.  We don’t know how or why, because our protagonist, R, doesn’t know how or why.  He just knows that it has happened and it has left him feeling a little directionless.

“What am I doing with my life? I'm so pale. I should get out more. I should eat better. My posture's horrible. I should stand up straighter. People would respect me more if I stood up straighter. What's wrong with me? I just want to connect. Why can't I connect with people? Oh, right, it's cause I'm dead.”  R.

He meets still-living human being Julie, and through his growing affection for her, gradually restarts his own heart, which changes everything.  It is supposed to be a comedy, and in fact I did laugh quite a lot. But like all really good comedies, I spent as much time being moved as I did being amused. 

It’s a Romeo and Juliet story, complete with the unfortunate casualty “Perry” (read Paris) and the best friend “M” (who would have had a lot of trouble saying Mercutio).  And with a few minor exceptions, it follows the Shakespearean plot pretty closely for a long time.  What delighted me most were the departures from that story.  And the story does completely depart from it’s Romeo and Juliet roots.

You see… it’s about what makes us dead.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

In this story, (as, I guess, in real life) there are several kinds of dead.  There is the death that comes from having your brain destroyed. Whether you are zombie or human, if your brain is destroyed, you stay dead.  

Then there is the death that comes from becoming a zombie (bitten, infected, however that happens). Once bitten, you become walking corpses with very little language, no direction, no real purpose except to feed their hunger. Classic zombies.

Then there is a way for zombies to die even more, and that is to become “Bonies.” They’ve left most of their skin and all of their communication behind and are completely consumed by their hunger.

“They don't bother us much but they'll eat anything with a heartbeat. I mean, I will too but at least I'm conflicted about it.”

Finally, there is one more kind of death articulated in the movie. The living who have no purpose but to survive a little longer inside their walled-in encampment.  Julie’s father, General Grigio’s whole focus is on keeping his small group of humans alive until they die of old age. There is no discernible plan for the future, other than to continue to survive.  This is also death.

The moment I realized that this movie was going to attempt to truly address this issue was much later in the story. M has just helped Julie and R to escape from over-curious Corpses and ravenous Bonies and is now staring at a picture on the wall of two people holding hands.  He has probably shuffled past this picture every day for a long time without stopping to look at it.  But the sight of R and Julie holding hands and then the sight of this picture has awakened something in him.  He is amazed. Other corpses join him, also amazed.  What is happening inside of them is something they have forgotten. They are remembering that they are supposed to be doing something here! It’s not enough just to shuffle and feed and not die. They are not just supposed to not be dying. They are supposed to be living.

There are lots of things in this world that can make us feel like we are dead. Loss, tragedy, depression, disappointment, bitterness, resentment, anything that cuts us off from love threatens to take us down into cold, deep spiritual rigor mortis.   

What wakes us back up, what brings us back to life, is love.

Now don’t misunderstand me. I’m not talking about romance. The movie trailer would have you believe that it is romance that brings this poor corpse back to life. But it is the moment when the possibility for romance is gone, when R has returned Julie to her own people and walked away from her, that he truly becomes alive and awake. He feels cold…  zombies don’t feel cold. It is when M and all of his followers decide that they are going to stand between the Bonies and the Humans that they are joined by dozens and then hundreds of others.  The love that spreads is the sacrificial kind.

The viral, infectious change that comes over him and every corpse he meets, that makes all of the hearts start slowly beating again, that change is sacrificial love. 

We are told that we have a very important job here to do on earth.  Love one another.  There are no addenda that allow us to exclude those who have detached themselves from life, those who do not or can not return our affection, those who are disagreeable or distasteful to us, (oh, no, did I just use the word ‘distasteful’ in a zombie movie review?) or those who will cause us great pain for loving them. 

The great thing about love is that it also never fails us. It exists in our hearts even when our hearts feel cold and dried out and dead.  It is the piece of eternity that lives in each of us, and it can always be reawakened.