Movie Review - Byzantium (2012)

I saw Byzantium as part of my Christmas movie marathon. And no, the movie has nothing to do with Christmas; neither does my movie festival. I just have some time off, so I get to watch a lot of movies.

Anyway, Byzantium is a vampire movie, although it is more of character study than a horror film.

Synopsis (spoilers): Clara (Gemma Arterton) and Eleanor (Saoirse Ronan) are mother and daughter...and both are vampires. Clara was turned into a vampire in her twenties, Clara when she was 16. This happened over 200 years ago, when each went to a remote island and entered a stone building where they encountered a doppelganger...and emerged a blood drinking immortal. The two have spent the intervening year living below the radar. Clara uses her beauty in a variety of sex-trade professions while Eleanor mopes around. They have to "obey" some of the expected "rules" of vampires (need blood to survive, can't enter a home without permission) but not others (sunlight doesn't bother them). They are being pursued by a shadowy group of male vampires, the Brotherhood, for reason that are not exactly clear. In a seedy seaside resort town, Clara set up a brothel while Eleanor finds a sickly young man (Caleb Landry Jones) to tell her story to.

Gemma Arterton makes being undead look pretty darn hot.

Byzantium is mostly a good movie. The story is well told and interesting. Director Neil Jordan is more restrained than in his previous excursion into the world of the undead, 1994's Interview with the Vampire but this more subdued visual style fits the less melodramatic story. The acting is almost uniformly good. However, there are three things that detract from the film. First and foremost is the character of Frank, played by Caleb Landry Jones. Frank is simpering and annoying and Jones decides to express this by always seeming on the verge of tears. There is nothing appealing about him; certainly, nothing that would attract a 200-year-old vampire. The character needed to be more forceful and played by an actor with range, not one, whimpering, note. Second, Eleanor's character is oddly written. Although she is centuries old, she is played as if she is still 16. It may represent how Clara has tried to keep her sheltered; but it plays more like an attempt to appeal to a teenage girl crowd. This is not an acting issue; Ronan is very effective. This purely an issue of how a character is written. Finally, and less important, the overall motivations and purpose of the Brotherhood are not at all clear. Some mysteries in the film - like exactly how the vampire making building works - are fine; we know what it does and that's enough. But, the motivation of the Brotherhood is important, since they are the antagonists who keep Clara on the run. Why they banded together and what their ultimate purpose is would help to give more depth to the reason they have been pursuing Clara and Eleanor.

With those caveats, the movie is worth checking out. It is an interesting look at how a pair of immortals would try to survive while keeping their true nature secret.