Martin (John Amplas), a young man who looks around 20-years-old, boards a train in Indianapolis, Indiana for New York. At night, he breaks into a sleeping car and sedates a woman with a syringe full of narcotics. She struggles, but he tells her not to struggle or be upset because she wont feel pain. After a few minutes, the woman falls asleep, and Martin has sex with the unconscious woman. Afterwards, he slices her wrists with a razor blade so he can drink her blood. The woman bleeds to death in her sleep.
In the morning, the train stops in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where Martin disembarks. He is met by Tata Cuda (Lincoln Maazel) an elderly and hostile old man who claims to be his cousin from the Old World. Together, they travel by another train to the town of Braddock, a dying industrial suburb. They walk to Cuda's large house where he shows Martin his living quarters. Cuda then accuses Martin of being an 84-year-old vampire from his old country. He has taken in Martin because he is family, but tells him, "First I will save your soul. Then I shall destroy you." Martin denies being a vampire and implies that Cuda is merely his uncle rather than his cousin. Cuda then puts up strings of garlic on the doors to his and his granddaughter's room, and then holds up a small cross when Martin approaches him. Martin takes away the cross, and even takes a bite of the garlic mocking these attempts by saying bitterly, "There's no real magic... ever". Cuda tells Martin that he can come and go as he pleases. But he also warns Martin that he will kill him if he kills anyone in Braddock. He also tells Martin to stay away from his granddaughter Christine (Christine Forrest), whom arrives home from her job that evening.
Cuda introduces Christine to Martin, but also warns her to stay away from him. But Christine instead strikes up a friendship with Martin who confides in her about his vampire heritage. When Cuda later confirms Martin's claims to be a vampire, Christine, not surprisingly, refuses to believe either one. She thinks that Cuda and the other members of her family have driven Martin to insanity by making him think that he is a vampire. It is never revealed if Martin really is a vampire, or just a shy and lonely youth with troubled issues. Christine is the only person that Martin gets the courage to talk to. When Christine's boyfriend Arthur (Tom Savini) arrives at the house for dinner, Martin stops talking and backs away despite Arthur's attempt at a conversation. Christine later confides in Martin that she hopes to leave Braddock someday with Arthur, even though Martin points out that Arthur treats her badly and is both verbally and physically abusive towards her.
When Christine sees that Martin won't talk to anyone else, she buys him a phone which he installs in his room. Martin begins to repeatingly call a radio talk show where he describes what it's like to be a vampire. He becomes known on the radio as "the Count" to all the listeners. But the patronizing host (Michael Gornick) thinks he's just crazy.
Martin gets a job at Cuda's grocery store of stocking shelves, hauling boxes around, and even gets to be a delivery boy for some of the customers. One of his customers is a certain Abby Santini (Elyane Nadeau), who becomes taken in with Martin. She is a very friendly young woman who is depressed when she tells Martin that her husband is unfaithful. But Martin still does not have the nerve to talk with her, so she is happy to have someone to confide in with her life problems. Martin phones the radio show host to describe his infatuation with the housewife and senses that she wants to have sex with him. When the radio show host asks Martin if it is a sexual problem that he has involving women criticizing him during sex, Martin replies that he has never had sex with a woman who was awake.
One day, Martin travels by train to outside Braddock to look for victims. At a supermarket, he follows a young woman (Sarah Venable) home to her posh suburban house. He sees the woman's husband (Richard Rubenstein) leave for a long business trip, and Martin decides this would be the right time for more feeding. Martin returns to the house after dark and breaks in through the garage door. But it is Martin who gets the surprise when he bursts into her bedroom to find her in bed with her adulterous lover Lewis (Al Levitsky). After a vicious struggle, Martin jabs both of them with hyprodermic needles with narcotics, and waits for the drugs to take affect. He drags the unconscious body of Lewis from the house to a clump of trees across the street where he kills him by shoving a broken tree branch into his neck and drinks his blood. Martin returns to the house where he has sex with the unconscious woman. But out of compassion and pity, he decides to let her live.
Martin begins to have romantic monochrome visions of his vampire past (real or imagined), where he drained blood from a young woman and was chased through the streets of a nameless European town by a torch-lit mob.
During one Sunday at church, Cuda brings home Father Howard (George A. Romero) who asks him about the possibility of exorcism and demon possession. Father Howard calls upon the elderly Father Zulemans (Clifford Forrest, Jr.) over at Cuda's request. Together, Cuda and Zulemans confront Martin his bedroom and attempt to perform an exorcism on him. At this point, Martin remembers (another real or imaginary flashback), in the Old Country of people trying to perform an exorcism on him, and he flees them. Martin then flees from Cuda and Zuelmas as well. A little later that night, Martin terrorizes Cuda in a children's playground when he puts on a Dracula cape and puts false fangs into his mouth to pretend that he really is a vampire.
One day, Martin finally musters the courage to talk with Mrs. Santini during a routine delivery to her house where he tells her that he's aware of her attempts to seduce him and wants now to have sex with her. After having sex for the first time, Mrs. Santini becomes more depressed for she tells Martin that her husband just left her because she discovered that she cannot bear children, and that her desires towards him are based on sex and nothing else. But Martin wants to stay with her and help her move on with her life. Martin tells the radio show host about his affair with the housewife and that he no longer has the urge to attack other women.
Meanwhile, Arthur meets with Cuda and tells him that he wants Christine to leave town with him so they can get married and start a family. But Christine becomes angry at Cuda when he tells Arthur that insanity runs in their family and he shouldn't consider having children with her. Shortly afterwards, Christine packs up and leaves Braddock for New York with Arthur despite Martin telling her that Arthur is abusive towards her. But her mind is made up. Before leaving, Christine tells Martin that she really has no ill feelings towards him and just wants to make a fresh start with her life. She says goodbye to him and promises to write. But Martin knows that with an abusive and possessive man in Christine's life, she probably won't.
Depressed over losing his one true friend, Martin phones the radio show host and tells him that he's getting "shaky" and wants to go out looking for more victims. That night, Martin travels to a rough crime-ridden area of Pittsburgh and attacks two derelicts in a alley, injecting them with narcotics. He kills one of them by silting the bum's wrist and drinking his blood. Martin is about to kill the second one when a police car shows up and gives chase. Martin narrowly escapes during a long chase on foot which leads from the garbage strew streets and through a local store. Martin runs into an old warehouse where a drug deal is going down. A shootout between the two cops and the three thugs begins where all of them are killed, leaving Martin as the sole survivor who casually walks away from the carnage.
One day, Martin finds Mrs. Santini dead in her bathtub, after she had slit her writs with a razor blade. Martin anonymously calls the police to report the body and leaves. He phones the radio show host one final time to say that he really doesn't need friends or people to talk to for he is his own person. But when Cuda learns about Mrs. Santini's suicide, is mistakenly thinks Martin killed her and made it look like a suicide as he's done before. Cuda walks into Martin's room while he is asleep and kills him by hammering a wooden stake through Martin's heart.
Cuda buries Martin's body in his back garden, while over the closing credits various voices from people are heard talking to the radio show host asking the whereabouts of "the Count".
能够見出許多方面的電影/文學傳統，例如法國香頌般的都市小品、伍迪·艾倫的片子、“愛在”三部曲，還有上海的通俗文藝傳統。能把這三個女人的一臺戲拍得俗而不“油”，原因在於影片從不試圖展現絕對的人設和極端的感情，同時在把這整件事拍出來之外，並不刻意誘導觀眾勒索更豐沛的意義。儘管主人公的生活狀態又讓我想到王朔筆下的某些北京人，但該片仍可說是只在上海並只以吳語進行方可成立的文本；它提供的是一套非生產性、同時高度去道德化的消費社會的感情圖景，而且特重女性切身的生活體驗：前現代的浪漫主義文化中的“癡情”/“愛情至上”，被指認為現代城市生活中的一種“神話”，它照亮了都市的夜空，卻也讓人們不以為意。另尤其體現劇作能力的一點是鞋匠的設置，這一掃地僧角色起到了故事旁觀者和“評點”者的作用。2021年12月24日於金逸達鏢。
这几年的女性/ 爱情题材影视剧，都是热搜体，也就是所谓的「泛社会话题」倾向很明显。而《爱情神话》却用一种清新的笔触对爱情进行了一次形而上的探讨，并且还满满都是烟火气。
回想2021年，最轻松舒展的两个小时，应该就是和王老师在电影院看这个的时候。好像世界都退回到我喜欢的那个状态里了。神奇。
看得太舒服了。值得高分支持。当然他们的生活离我们很远，海派伍迪艾伦。
偶然与想象，纠缠与分离。是谁疯疯癫癫泣诉往事是假，是谁踉踉跄跄笑谈爱情是真。一曲歌短，一夜情长，睡着在影院里的梦，迷失在城市中的人，去哪里寻一座喷泉。
蛮好的，这种电影就像痒痒挠，能让你舒服了就是灵。个人没有特别喜欢，但有趣的是观影的经历。本来是吃完饭去商场随便逛逛，这部电影准备明天看的，结果发现有票，于是一拍即合，立刻买票进场。稍微错过了开头的五分钟，但也无妨。从某个角度来说，倒是蛮需要这种“上海视角”的爱情喜剧，但同时正是因此，整部电影呈现的质感更像是某部剧的几个片段。个人喜欢结尾，是本人最喜欢的荒诞感日常。能这样收尾真的是，配上里面的几个片段，导演的迷影感和剧本的平衡性，才是当下国内导演所稀缺的。
超级好评，如果年轻人的爱情是传说，中年人的爱情真的是神话，人生在世，经历了那么多，被生活锻造得刀枪不入之后，依然相信爱情，在琐碎生活中生长出的爱情，是包容，是吸引，也是勇气。
年度真香！感觉二十年后会成为甲方乙方一样的经典。BGM临街杂货店咖啡馆《红拂夜奔》各种梗好评！紫发马伊琍有点像千fa！白老师还真的有点魅力！&导演太聪明了，竟然是91年的！最后很多泪点真的是中年人的泪点（。）
7.0分（0.5的鼓励分）。今年个人院线片十佳。之前关注过邵艺辉的公众号，知道她会写，但没想到居然还会拍电影，而且拍出了国产片里，除王家卫之外相当稀缺的，几乎是我仅见的欧洲式中产情趣，更难得的是这种欧范还是以上海为前缀。
挺喜欢的，值回票价（比平常高1/3）。因为以前做过城市摄影所以会比较在意都市的呈现方式，这部给人的感觉耳目一新。电影从第一个镜头的（话剧）[幕后]走到（电影）[台前]，本身是有一个空间维度的转变的，这里要用到一个建筑学的术语，叫facade立面，每个人物都试图维持自身的精致立面（一如上海遗留的老建筑），但只有白老师是在试图展示和衔接侧面（多面，最终在餐桌上相遇）。每当立面崩塌，就会出现不同的空间调度，一如寻找展厅时强调的空间错位，这些差错深深浅浅，偶有触碰到中年人的脆弱时刻，但却并没有一刻失去气力。从幕后到台前，爱情的神话是渗透立面的努力，排队没有领到糖，好歹有共享抗糖化妆品嘛～
精致，浪漫，刻薄可爱，宛如置身于上海的街道，迎面遇上一群似乎装腔作势又似乎原应如此的妙人。人到中年情转克制，克制的浓情本身也是一种浪漫。
没啥感觉，不算喜欢。
影片设计充满了巧思，很多隐喻，双关和有趣的细节。
感觉这剧本是坂元裕二写出来的，当然还有这北电戏文专业练就的会写段子的伶牙俐齿。最后的镜头挺好，最让人感动的老乌的故事感觉像是“青年破处”版广岛之恋。
前面还有点意思，然而也有些刻意迎合当下网络受众对上海及上海人的刻板想象，配角都有点“表演”过度（都不太像真实生活中的人），剧情设计则太过依赖演员的自身气质和台词，有些地方与其说是电影，其实更像是小品、舞台剧或电视剧，到了后半部分气就全散了，节奏开始变得拖沓，好几次以为就要结束了，下个段落又无限絮叨下去……不知道后面为什么把“接孩子放学”这条线剪断了，原本以为会引发之后的剧情反转（如前夫忽然回来之类）或埋下什么伏笔，结果什么也没有，而把重要配角写死了更是败笔，音乐也用得有点滥了……不过，能在北京的大银幕上听到全程上海闲话还是满有意思额。另外，只有我觉得老乌很像《繁花》里面的陶陶吗？
男人女人那点事，许多台词挺有意思的，你来我往，调侃奚落讽刺手到擒来又自然而然。最爱的两场戏是第一次几个女人齐聚一堂和在画廊投影仪下面的那一场对话，聊女人如何完整，徐峥替中国男导演道歉，很妙。
刻意的美化离异后的生活状态，刻意弱化女人之间的情绪，刻意消解白辛苦背后的本质，好像所有人都有钱有闲，爱情只是餐后甜点，离异之后绝不仅仅是不敢尝试新的剧本，不敢接受感情而已。老白的本质，只是工具人，是真正意义上的白辛苦。
喜欢这部电影，有意思，台词里的小机锋小心思，让人惊喜。中国要是有伍迪艾伦，也只能出现在上海。
四星+
书架上有一本《繁花》，我现在有兴趣看看了。
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