Summaries

Synopsis

"Neuropsychologists say that 'we don't have one brain. We havethree--one that is human, built over another that is mammalian, built overyet another that's reptilian. So, when a psychiatrist asks you to lie downon the couch, you're being asked to lie down with a horse and with acrocodile.'" [Steven Grlscz]

A wrecked car is suspended in the treetops, the driver a young woman.Investigators notice that there is no blood, but they make nothing of it.Nor do they notice her fiancé, Steven Grlscz [Jude Law], among the bystanders.Later that day, Steven writes one word in his diary: despair.While waiting for the Tube, Steven saves Maria Vaughan from jumpingin front of the train. He gives her his card, she calls him, and theybegin a love affair. When Steven is assured that Maria has feelings forhim, he takes her to his bed, drinks her blood, and then drives to thecoast where he disposes of her body in the sea. This time the word enteredin his diary is: disappointment.Steven Grlscz is a vampire, but far from typical. He can go out inthe sunlight, eat regular food, does not sleep in a coffin, and has nofangs. Yet he needs to drink blood once a month or he will die. Hisfavorite target is young women with whom he first develops a relationship.

While touring a museum or industrial plant of some sort, Stevensketches asthmatic Anne Levels [Elina Löwensohn]. When they meet later in a cappucinoshoppe, she asks to see the drawings. They exchange names and make a datefor Wednesday night. When Anne breaks the date in order to work on somewaterproof concrete (she's a structural engineer), Steven brings herChinese takeout. So begins the carefully choreographed relationshipbetween vampire and new prey.

However, Stephen is worried when he overhears a news broadcast aboutthe body of Maria Vaughan being found in a fishing net. He immediatelytelephones the police, probably because he knows that the trail willeventually lead to him. Inspector Healey [Timothy Spall] and Sgt Roche [Jack Davenport] come to questionhim. Steven makes up a story about not seeing Maria after they had anargument over her wanting to marry him and him not wanting to continue therelationship with her. Steven becomes their prime suspect, and InspectorHealey begins to tail him. One evening, after Steven sees Anne off on thetrain, Healey is attacked by a gang of hoods who beat him and steal thecrucifix he wears around his neck. Steven intervenes and saves Healey. Sobegins the carefully choreographed relationship between vampire anddetective.

Meanwhile, things with Anne are going nicely. In his diary, Stevendescribes her as confident, independent, witty, and full of strange littlestories and sayings. Steven keeps notes on all his intendeds, because thegoal is to woo their trust and love. Anne visits him where he works as amedical researcher investigating crystals from human kidneys and bladders.Steven contends that extreme emotional states can cause the body to formcrystals, and he shows her a number of them which he names "rage,resentment, spite, malice, and bad temper." When Steven and Anne areattacked by the gang of hoods from the Tube, Steven saves Anne in anamazing show of superstrength and speed, apparently some of the vampiricqualities that he *does* possess.

Anne is falling in love, but Healey and Roche are still suspicious ofSteven. They question people along the route that Steven might have takento the seashore and find a toll collector who may remember him. Steven isbrought in for a line-up, but the toll collector fingers someone else.Steven and Healey strike up a friendship in which they confide personalthings with each other. Steven retrieves the crucifix from Healey'sattacker and returns it to Healey. When Healey learns that Steven actuallysaved Maria from committing suicide, he begins to doubt that Steven has itin him to be a killer.

One night, Anne is in a bad mood and snaps at Steven. She immediatelyapologizes, but Steven leaves in a huff and hides out, refusing to returnAnne's phone calls. After Anne has to perform a tracheostomy on an injuredman, she admits to herself that she misses Steven and calls him. Stevenhas been drawing pictures of her and admits that he misses her, too. Theyplan to meet at his apartment, the first time that Anne has been invitedthere.

Steven knows that he is dying and that he needs blood. His body isbreaking down, he bleeds and doesn't heal, and he has to wear an alarm toremind him to breathe while he's sleeping. It's time to feed on Anne but,when he tries, he can't bring himself to kill her. Instead, he explains toher that he is a vampire who feeds on the emotions in blood. Like kidneystones, he says, emotions are "things" carried in the blood. Someemotions, e.g., resentment, malice, despair, and disappointment, onlyserve to make him sick. He prefers to feed on love. He thinks that perfectlove might cure him if he ever finds it. Could Anne be this perfect love?Anne isn't buying it. To show his love for her, Steven lets her go. Heeven hands her a knife and informs her that, with one cut, he will bleedto death in 20 minutes.

Anne puts down the knife and, rather than run, she stays with him,tending him as he grows weaker and weaker, bathing his eyes when he goestemporarily blind, waking him when he forgets to breathe, offering to goto the chemist when they run out of elastoplasts (bandaids). Steven iseven more convinced of Anne's love for him and, as his end approaches, heknows what he must do. While Anne is at the chemist, he prepares for hisdinner. When Anne realizes what he is doing, she runs to the roof,intending to kill herself rather than let him kill her. As she rescindsher love for him ("I know you for what you are...I don't love you!") andSteven replies, "It may not be in your heart, but it's still in yourblood," a big tear runs down his cheek.

Anne jumps, but Steven catches her hand just in time. She removes alarge stickpin from her hair and plunges it through Steven's hand. Still,he succeeds in pulling her back to the roof, whether to save her life orhis dinner is up to you to decide. As Steven lay dying, he muses. "When Iwas a boy," he says, "I fell out of a tree but I managed just to grab abranch. I hung there for a long time, terrified, the silence and the painin my arms and the blood pounding in my ears. And then I fell. I don'tremember what happened when I hit the ground. All I can remember now isthe agony of holding on and the wonderful feeling of letting go."With that, Steven lets go of life, and Anne walks home in tears.[Original Synopsis by bj_kuehl.]