Twilight Review
by Jerry Saravia (Faust668 AT msn DOT com)February 4th, 2010
TWILIGHT (2008)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
RATING: Three stars
Vampires are fascinating creatures because they represent the undead and seem unconnected to humans and their proclivities. Not so with the vampires in "Twilight" - they play baseball and attend the prom! There are a couple of new twists on vampires in "Twilight," an absorbing love story that has a rushed third act but it still manages to maintain interest.
Kristen Stewart is Bella Swan, the quiet teenage girl from Phoenix who has moved to the town of Forks, Washington, to live with her father. This town is almost always cloudy and drenched in rain. Her new classmates seem like a joyful bunch, but there is also a group of emaciated teens with dark brown eyes. One of them is a brooding James Dean lookalike named Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), who is even more quiet than she is. Bella sees something in Edward, something either otherworldly or she has met the sulkiest, most distancing teenager in history. But when she is rescued by Edward, either during a potential rape attack or getting smashed by an out-of-control truck, she grows smitten and eventually discovers his secret: he is a vampire. I think the ice-cold skin might have been the tip-off.
Legions have read Stephenie Myers' novel so they know what to expect. I suppose a teen-friendly vampire soap opera is a might close to my initial expectations, but I was pleasantly surprised by the film's central key relationship. What elevates it I think is Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattison who have undeniable chemistry, and keep the romance believable and honest. In fact, had Edward not been a vampire, it wouldn't have mattered. She wants to kiss him, make love to him, but all Edward wants to do is climb up trees. He makes her long for him, and I can imagine that many teenage girls find this idea arresting, forlorn and tragic all at the same time. Yeah, he is a vampire and she is human so sex could be a problem. The key word is abstinence but I must say it is refreshing to see a movie where the teenagers can love each other first before the sexual shenanigans begin. Director Catherine Hardwicke (who helmed the potent "Thirteen") knows and understands Bella and Edward enough to give them weight and some measure of complexity.
"Twilight" does suffer a bit when it focuses on Edward Cullen's family, who all live in a glass house in the middle of the woods. They welcome Bella with Italian food that they obviously cannot eat themselves. The Cullen clan also play baseball but only when lightining strikes (!) and they only drink the blood of animals. And when we are introduced to another group of vampires who kill humans, I felt my heart sinking a bit. A better subplot given less screen time is to the Native American family who might be werewolves. Granted that many of these subplots are in the book and perhaps figure in later installments, but I grew weary of the evil vampire clan and their determination to go after Bella. Perhaps due to Stewart and Pattison's love story, I felt these other elements distracted a bit.
Still, "Twilight" is a serene and strangely beautiful film with two charismatic leads. The love story blooms and stays with you, nicely amplified by Stewart and Pattinson who give this film an ethereal humanity you don't see much of in movies anymore. Hardly a great movie nor a stunning new saga in vampire lore, "Twilight" is still captivating and makes you swoon. It is just a sweet love story that happens to revolve around vampires.
For more reviews, check out JERRY AT THE MOVIES at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/Jerry_at_the_Movies.html
BIO on the author of this page at:
http://www.geocities.com/faustus_08520/index.html
Email me at [email protected] or at [email protected]
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
