ocelotwreak 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...

samir_damaceno 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!

svenja-mason First of all I loved the images, the music and the acting. You can't flaw the actors for trying to make the best of what I'd consider a bit of a flat plot and script. The dialogues are mediocre and seemingly lead nowhere. There are some concepts taken up that lead nowhere, i.e. the mushrooms out of season. And frankly, there's no action at all. The film plots along and leaves you feeling like there should be something happening. As if it's building up to something and then, nothing. I felt slightly bored at times which was only saved by the acting and the harmony between Tilda and Tom. This film could have been so much more.

Liz Fickenscher 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.