- Directed by Nei Jordan
- Written by Moira Buffini
- Stars Saoirse Ronan, Gemma Arterton, Sam Riley
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 58 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEAGYNhAlSQ
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was cool how it starts out with a couple women and gradually fills in who they are and what their history is. There’s horror and romance and very good story telling. It’s a little on the long and slow side, but that’s a feature not a bug in this one, as the movie unfolds. It’s a very good one.
Spoilery Synopsis
Eleanor writes a letter and then throws it out her window. Robert, an old man, reads her note and says it’s a good story. Her story is about Clara, who is full of secrets.
We cut to Clara, dancing in a nightclub. She steals from a man and then bites him on the nose when he puts up a fight. The club owner fires her, so she steals from him as well. When Werner comes looking for Clara, she leads him on a chase all over town.
Old man Richard takes Eleanor home and tells her stories from his scrapbook. “There comes a time in life when secrets should be told. You’ve got secrets, haven’t you?” He talks about old stories of revenants. She cuts his wrist and drinks his blood until he dies peacefully.
Werner and Clara talk. He repeatedly insults her. She very quickly beheads him in the hotel room. Eleanor comes home; she’s Clara’s roommate, and she’s not happy at the mess she finds. Now they have to move again. They set fire to the place and hitch-hike out of town.
The two women split up for the evening, and we see they have very different approaches to picking up men. Clara does the classic whore-thing, while Eleanor plays classical music for old people and a waiter named Frank. Eleanor doesn’t hurt her mark, but Clara invites her along to go home with Noel, whom she’s found. They go to his place, a big hotel called the “Byzantium.”
The Byzantium has a long history, but Noel owns the place. He invites Eleanor to stay there while he and Clara, er Camilla, do their thing. Instead, Noel is a nice guy and he takes them in and helps them. Clara pitches the idea that she could start a whorehouse in the Byzantium.
We get a flashback to Eleanor’s “origin story,” where she runs into a woman in a batcave and gets bitten. She then goes home with Ruthven, an old vampire who says he knew Eleanor’s mother.
Eleanor finds it necessary to tell her story. She can’t tell Noel, so she goes back to Frank and tells him about her mother’s encounter with Ruthven. Her mother was forced into prostitution and had baby Eleanor, whom she put in an orphanage. She grew up to become a nun.
The men who investigated Werner’s death have now found old man Richard’s corpse, and they seem to know what they’re seeing. We cut to Clara, drinking some guy on the beach.
Eleanor goes to visit Frank in the hospital and talks to Gabi, his mother. Frank’s been fighting leukemia for years and takes blood thinner. On the way out, she drinks an old woman.
Clara’s brothel in the Byzantium starts getting customers and workers.
Frank and Eleanor talk about being friends, but she says, “It would be fatal. For me.” She says she has to live with a secret, and she can’t tell him. She writes down her story and gives it to Frank.
We get more flashbacks to Eleanor’s mother, who we see was Clara. Clara’s dying, and she was Ruthven’s favorite. Darvell, one of Ruthven’s friends, stops by for a visit, and he’s a vampire now. We see Darvell’s origin next; he got sick and was dying, when two men came to see him. They gave him the location of a shrine. Darvell went into the batcave we saw earlier and got bitten and died inside. Ruthven ran all the way home and stole all Darvell’s property, but now, Darvell has returned.
Eleanor watches an old Hammer vampire film on TV. Frank comes to the door and talks to Clara; he knows her story now. Eleanor tells Frank that her story is true, but he doesn’t believe it; he thinks it’s all just a metaphor or something like that. Eleanor stops at the old folks’ home on the way home and eats another old woman.
The two vampire hunters find the dead man on the beach and continue their search.
Frank shows Eleanor’s story to the teacher, and he shows it to a colleague. They think that Eleanor is a very disturbed young woman. He comes to the Byzantium, and he’s surprised to find that Eleanor lives in a brothel. He threatens to get in touch with social services.
Back in the flashback, we see more of what happened to Darvell. He gave Ruthven the map to the cave, but Clara shot Ruthven and took the map herself. Later, when Eleanor turned 16, Clara took her to the cave as well.
Eleanor confronts Frank about giving away her story. She says she only picks on people who want to die. He invites her to his birthday dinner.
Meanwhile, Clara talks to Eleanor’s teacher. She tells him the rest of the true story. Darvell took her to the two old vampires, “We are the pointed nails of justice.” She followed the old men’s code until it was time to turn Eleanor. Women are not allowed to create, which was her crime. Ruthven had raped Eleanor and given her syphilis, so the only way to save her was to make her a vampire. Then Clara kills the teacher, who is later found by Morag, his associate.
Eleanor and Frank kiss, but she says it can’t possibly work out. He’s dying anyway, so she drinks some of his blood. Eleanor and Clara fight, and Noel is accidentally killed.
Morag somehow hooks up with Darvell and Savella, the old vampires, and we see they’re the men who have been tracking Clara all along, working with the police. Clara goes to see Frank, but he won’t let her inside.
The Brotherhood grab Ella, and Clara runs to help. Darvell says that Eleanor has been condemned from the moment Clara created her, since women are forbidden to create. Savella explains that his sword was made in Byzantium during the crusades, and then Darvell beheads him with it. Darvell releases Clara, who runs to release Eleanor. He says there are more members of the brotherhood who will come for them eventually.
Clara says it’s finally time for Eleanor to go out on her own, as she plans to travel with Darvell now. Eleanor, on the other hand, takes sickly Frank to the island and sends him into the shrine…
Brian’s Commentary
So… a happy ending?
These vampires show reflections in the mirror and walk outside during the daylight. They don’t have fangs, but they do have to be invited inside. Also, they can’t turn other people themselves; they need to go to that shrine.
It’s slow moving, and we’re not really sure where it’s going through most of the runtime. The main plot is about Eleanor wanting to talk about her secrets to Frank and the results of that, but the various flashbacks to the past are where the action is.
What kind of school were Eleanor and Frank attending? They were lying on their backs talking about personal problems like some kind of weird acting class or self-help group, not like any high school I’ve ever seen. Also, why would Eleanor bother going to school? She could pass for an adult and not need to take the risk.
It’s long and involved and very well done.
Kevin’s Commentary
I really enjoyed this one. It wasn’t what I expected, and I liked how it gradually filled things in showing us the modern and the past. The complex story telling in layers is excellent.
Be the first to comment on "2012 Byzantium"