So much average

Just perfect...

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Only Lovers Left Alive is a love story - actually, several love stories. It's not a standard clichéd vampire horror flick, so best not to judge it by our modern vampire film conventions. In fact, the word "vampire" is never spoken in the film. And if you came for a fast-paced experience, then perhaps it's best to give it a miss. This is a very sensual movie in the sense that it engages and pulls on all your senses. There is no real need to think a lot about what's happening, only feel what is happening! I liked the film's contrast of the sad, reclusive, world-weary Adam who is ready to end it all with a bullet, against the world-loving Eve who dances, voraciously reads all the world's literature and enthusiastically connects with the history of her life in Tangier. How would you or I live the continuing life of the ancient un-dead? Would you embrace everything that life offers you, or retreat and simply watch the collapse of yet another civilization as it crumbles under foot like these film images of Detroit? Director Jim Jarmusch lets the viewer make up their own mind as Adam and Eve navigate the modern and ancient streets of Detroit and Tangier. However, as one other reviewer points out, this is a film "you should definitely watch before making any decisions about becoming a vampire." As the love and chemistry between Eve and Adam (and Christopher) shows, every relationship, even an eternal one, can end or be forever altered by circumstances beyond their knowledge and control. As much as I liked the movie, at the end I was frustrated and wanted more dialog about the endearing and unending love between Adam and Eve, more backstory, more comparison to living in this time of cell phones and blood banks vs living in the ages of literature, disease and war. Then I watched the "Extended and Deleted Scenes" on my BluRay disc and felt totally shocked: here was all the dialog and backstory and extended love scenes and quotes from Rumi that totally filled in what the film could/should have shown us! In fact I initially felt so angry I was motivated to digitize the disc into my video editing software and add all the extended and deleted scenes back into the film so I could see what a full experience of the film would be like, except I don't have that amount of time on my hands (I'm not a vampire). Please watch the Extended and Deleted Scenes (and also the music video Hal by Yasmine Hamdan that was used in the movie and will send shivers up your spine) after you view the movie itself - for me it made all the difference in the world between an ok movie and one that actually delivered the sights, sounds and feelings that I was really expecting from this movie. Why Director Jarmusch deleted all this good stuff and left in the too-long intervals of driving around Detroit is a mystery, or perhaps just another love story he included for himself...

Adam and Eve, a pair of lovers living in Detroit and Tangiers respectively, re-unite for a while. They talk about all that has happened in their lives, and the people they met. There is a lot of self-aware punning here, in the style of Doctor Who, because they are hundreds of years old. Eve's little sister shows up, and is warned not to behave badly. But it is clear that she will behave badly - to everyone but Adam and Eve, who appear monumentally thick because of this. Because of the sister's bad behaviour, the couple have to move house. And that's all that happens. Everyone has funky big hair and wears cool sunglasses, and it is all dark and moody. But this trivial little family drama hardly commands the viewer's attention, and is supposed to be interesting because the characters are vampires. It's not. A slow, boring tale with cheesy dialogue.

It's done just to be appreciated! It's a quiet, slow and obscure movie with an excellent photograph AND a great cast. The script it's not the greatest thing, it's very contemporary, empty and slow especially in the beggining, the best parts are between the lines, the sutil things like the brilliant playings (actings) united to a wonderful and pretty photograph and an excellent soundtrack. It's worth it!

I'm guilty of an overdeveloped sense of nostalgia, and that can blind me to obvious flaws in films that tug at those tender parts of my psyche. While the logical part of me can see that Only Lovers Left Alive lacks some plot movement, character development and plain old common sense, I can't get over the parts I love. The wild aesthetic, the pop culture reference overload, the overly cool Adam and Eve - characters that would have caused a high school aged me overhaul her appearance and stay out of the sun even more than she already did. Jarmusch creates the perfect, delicious world of intense and wise love, cold and aloof passion and all the right literary references - all wrapped up in a killer soundtrack. I love this film. It tugs at all the parts a cool love story should, and it hits all the places a "cool" vampire story should. It might not be for everyone, but it sure is for me.