In love with undead

Here's a quick refresher for all you harangued parents, tweeting teens and overworked casualties of the modern world on how zombie movies are supposed to work.

Warm Bodies

Director: Jonathan Levine

Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Teresa Palmer, Rob Corddry, John Malkovich, Dave Franco, Aneliegh Tipton

The world goes about its business until a strange incurable disease comes along and lays populations to waste, leaving not dead people but flesh-eating, undead critters in its wake. Those who are not infected have to then spend most of their days shooting zombies and making sure they don't get their brains chewed.

So when, in Jonathan Levine's smart, funny and intelligent adaptation of a book by Isaac Marion, you are introduced to R, the undead hero of this story, you realise this is not just another George Romero-style zombie monster film.

You see R - while he can't talk, takes a long time to get anywhere and sates his hunger by feeding on humans - has a mind, an opinion and questions about his situation. With a wry sense of humour that quickly endears us to him, R seems like a nice, cool guy who unfortunately happens to be a zombie. He lives in an abandoned airplane on the tarmac at the airport where all the zombies hang out. Here he has collected bric-a-brac from his raids into the city and has a small collection of vinyl records which he likes to play himself to sleep with. Even when we see him feast on the brains of a hapless young man, we're still on his side because he feels bad, but just can't help himself.

Turns out that in this world when zombies eat human brains they get to experience the memories of their victim, which is how R learns of his dead breakfast's pretty blonde girlfriend, Julie (Palmer). When Julie shows up at the airport, R takes her in and they begin an unusual relationship that has the potential to turn the whole damn zombie world upside down.

The only problems in the way of our star-crossed, life-form bridging couple are Julie's father (Malkovich) who is the zombie popping leader of the small group of humans left in the city and the Boneys - a group of super zombie skeleton guys who will eat anything they can lay their skinny paws on. R's not willing to let go of Julie because it turns out that loving her is good for him - so good that he's becoming less of a zombie day by day and so are his zombie friends.

It's Romeo and Juliet plus zombies minus the tragedy. But it's pulled off with such humour and awareness of the genre that Levine's film ends up being a refreshing reminder that not all young adult fare need involve Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and a Volvo. Sometimes you can just have a quirky romance for both those who love love and those who just love the undead.