R is dead. His neighbors are dead. His friends are dead. For the most part, nearly everyone he meets is dead. In general, his life after death is normal. Like everyone else, he wanders, grunts, and chows down on anything with a pulse. Unlike everyone else, as far as he knows, R longs for the life that he can't really remember. His longing for life manifest in a habit that no one else seems to have. R is a collector or a hoarder, depending on your definition of someone who gathers and lives amongst collected odds and ends. R is content with his lack of contentment, until he meets Julie (Teresa Palmer), the recent ex-girlfriend of his most recent meal. At the time, he didn't know it, but meeting Julie was the beginning of a new life for him and the world.
Based on "Warm Bodies," the debut novel by Isaac Marion, Jonathan Levine's film adaptation is fun, thrilling, and heart-warming. Despite the fact that one of the protagonists is a rotting corpse that eats brains, R (Nicholas Hoult) is a very likable guy. Even as he sinks his teeth into the flesh of his future girlfriend's boyfriend, getting a taste of the thoughts and realizations passing through his mind, often results in a light chuckle, instead of gut churning revulsion. With a regular barrage of well crafted moments and self-aware zombies, "Warm Bodies," is continually charming and even palatable for anyone with a queasy stomach, when brain eating zombies are a key element in the story. And even though the less reasonable, skeletal evolutionary offshoots of the fleshy zombies tend to lack the civilized tendencies of R and his friends, "Warm Bodies" maintains a good balance between romantic comedy and parentally acceptable brain biting.
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