He Said, She Said: Zombieland
By Caroline Thibodeaux
October 5, 2009
BoxOfficeProphets.com
Just what is it about zombies?
There's something simultaneously horrific, repulsive and hysterical about them. Whether they're slow-moving or the sprinting kind, there's something about these mindless, voracious ghouls that automatically lends itself to dark, sardonic humor. More than any other monster you can think of – vampires, werewolves, mummies, Dick Cheney – zombies have found a special, snark-filled niche within the fabric of pop culture. Witness the recent popularity of films like Dawn of the Dead, 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead and the surprising reaction to the combination Jane Austen-George Romero send-up/homage Pride and Prejudice and Zombies - a work whose premise was a lot funnier and interesting than the actual book.
It may have something to do with the innate nature of the cinematic zombie. In the movies, a normal person usually gets infected by some ghastly super virus which was being covertly developed as a military mega weapon. The result: a non-thinking, ravenous killing machine whose only interest and immediate survival depends on the eating of the unaffected. It's pure ironic gravy that the previously unaffected in turn become zombies themselves and go on to spread the menace even further. For decades, the plight of the zombie in pop culture has been held up as the reflection of the looming face of society drowning and dying in an all-eating, non-thinking dumbed down consumer culture. The horror-comedy Zombieland concedes all this and goes one step further. Imagine if you will, if Night of the Living Dead married Little Miss Sunshine and they had a baby. You'd get Zombieland - a humorous, gory mishmash coming-of-age/road trip/R-rated family comedy-adventure that just happens to take place during the post-zombie apocalypse.
Directed by Ruben Fleischer from a script by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, Zombieland concerns Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg), a student in Austin, TX trying to reach Columbus, OH to see if his parents may have escaped the zombie onslaught. We see the film mostly through his narrative. He introduces a list of rules he's devised detailing how to survive the zombie apocalypse. These rules provide a hilarious leitmotif throughout the movie, framing not just the scenes, but Columbus' philosophy of life as he now knows it. In his travels across the newly wasted land he encounters Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a man looking for what may be the last available Twinkies on Earth. They join together and eventually happen upon Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), two con-artist sisters who continue to rely on their talents with trickery as they attempt to reach Pacific Playland – a place out west that is rumored to be zombie-free.
I enjoyed so much about this movie – especially the script, which is a dream. The actors must have drooled at the first table read. It's not just funny, it's sweet and clever and it never lets the end of the world get in the way of subtle charm. The action never wanes, but still allows for moments of humanity. It never feels hurried or rushed and it only meanders a little during scenes containing a surprising (but in the end unnecessary) cameo at the end of the second act.
This performance is perhaps the best work Woody Harrelson has done since The People vs. Larry Flynt and that includes No Country for Old Men. He's pretty much always good, but he wears the character of Tallahassee like a pair of leather gloves that he took the time to break in for three months. The role fits him perfectly and he hits this one out of the park. Eisenberg is more than up to the challenge of meeting Harrelson in his satisfying portrayal of a young loner who has to traverse across a corpse-ridden void replete with terror and death before stumbling upon the family he always wanted. The direction and editing are spot-on. Fleischer pulls out just enough pathos and bathos out of his small ensemble. The propulsive soundtrack energizes the action, but one of my favorite moments in the score was a gorgeously orchestrated sweeping movement which plays over the final action sequence and doesn't belie, belittle or give away the ultimate outcome.
Zombieland is nothing but a wicked little treat for moviegoers. It capably joins the pantheon of smart, wacky, fun zombie movies. It's a gruesomely violent smash and bash gorefest which finds a way to extol positive if sly little life lessons throughout. I never quite got past the suspicion that Zombieland may have been winking at the audience the entire time, but that's more than okay because I was laughing too hard at Zombieland to even care.