Warm Bodies - Romance is dead? Not for zom-com couple Nicholas Hoult & Teresa Palmer

(Image credit: photo: Jan Thijs)

Imagine Romeo and Juliet with zombies and you’ve pretty much nailed the plot of Warm Bodies, the latest movie in the burgeoning rom-zom-com genre kicked off by Shaun of the Dead.

Here, the feuding clans to which the star-crossed lovers belong couldn’t be further apart: she’s human; he’s a flesh-eating monster.

Actually, as played by Skins star Nicholas Hoult, Warm Bodies’ hero R is a good deal more soulful than your average film zombie. Indeed, for a victim of the apocalyptic virus, or whatever, that has turned humans into zombies, he’s surprisingly in touch with his feelings.

As for his red-eyes, blank stare, pallor and shuffling walk; surely that just makes him a fairly typical slacker? He has a snarky, angst-ridden voice-over to match, but when it comes to speaking out loud he’s as tongue-tied as the average teenage boy; can, in fact, manage little more than a grunt.

Which means good pick-up lines are something of a problem for him when he meets his Juliet, or rather, Julie, played by Aussie actress Teresa Palmer (the leather-wearing, Ducati-riding, ass-kicking blonde in I Am Number Four).

ANALEIGH TIPTON, TERESA PALMER and DAVE FRANCO star in WARM BODIES

(Image credit: photo: Jan Thijs)

She’s the spirited daughter of the leader (a coasting John Malkovich) of the human survivors holed up in a walled-off city. And the duo’s meet-cute comes about when Julie’s reconnaissance crew, looking for supplies beyond the walls, runs into a bunch of ravenous zombies.

The encounter doesn’t go exactly to form. Instead of chowing on her brains, R finds himself smitten with Julie, saves her from his fellow zombies and takes her back to his pad - an abandoned 747 at the airport that is the zombies’ favoured hangout.

There, amid his collection of vinyl records (Bruce, Bob; the usual undead favourites), R discovers that falling in love awakens in him dormant feelings and capabilities, suggesting that becoming a zombie isn’t necessarily a one-way street…

Warm Bodies has such a sweet and quirky spirit that it’s a shame the movie isn’t better. Unfortunately, 50/50 director Jonathan Levine’s adaptation of Isaac Marion’s novel fails to sustain the story’s premise and the narrative pace gets stuck at a zombie shuffle. Just because the film is about the undead doesn’t mean that scenes have to die on screen. (See Zombieland for a zom-com with zip.)

Still, the leads are charming, co-stars Rob Corddry and Analeigh Tipton (as the lovers’ respective best friends) provide appealing support, and the film’s best lines - most of them in R’s voice-over - really do have that vital spark.

In cinemas from Friday 8th February.

Jason Best

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.