Twilight

MOVIE DETAILS

Rating: 5.3 out of 10
Director: Catherine Hardwicke
Writer: Melissa Rosenberg, Stephenie Meyer
Star: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Billy Burke
Genres: Drama/Fantasy/Romance
Release Date: November 21, 2008 (United States)

Twilight

If you are a vampire, then everything has to do with you. Why is Edward Cullen so obsessed with Bella Swan that he has erotomania? Because her blood smells delicious and he doesn’t want to kill her. This is what he says to her: He mustn’t be around her; he might bite a little and not be able to stop. She finds all this very cozy. She tells him she’s never seen anyone so beautiful before in her life. As far as I can remember, Edward never said any such thing to her maybe once. What he goes on saying instead is that they ought to stay far, far apart because he wants her so much.

Is it logical for a woman to fall in love with a man because the man desires her so much? It seems like men think so. It’s not about the woman; it’s about the man’s desire. We all know there’s no such thing as a vampire, but come on now, what is “Twilight” really about? It’s about some of the physical consequences of teenage boy’s abstinence from sex, and how hard it can be sometimes really, really hard when you’re both in love; and also about a girl who wants to go all the way with him and doesn’t care what happens after that because she loves him so much too: He’s too beautiful for words; she’d do anything for him; she could say over their dead bodies or rather, over hers; like many teenagers (all right, like me), she’s got a touch of thanatophilia.

If there were no vampires in “Twilight,” it would be just another one of those thin-blooded teen romances about two good-looking kids who want each other so much because they want each other so much and sometimes that’s all it is even when there are vampires they’re just “in love with being in love.” But in “Twilight” they have a juicy disagreement about whether he should kill her or not. She’s like, I don’t especially want to die, but if that’s what it takes He is touched by her willingness to let him, and grateful for the opportunity. Think of all the things he’s giving up for her. On prom night on the stage of that not-especially-private gazebo in the public gardens he teeters on the brink upper lower they’re all brinks of going down on one knee and sinking his teeth into her jugular.

The movie looks just as good as it reads: Lush! And beautiful! The actors are well-chosen: You may remember Robert Pattinson (Edward) as Cedric Diggory, who was murdered by Voldemort’s order at the end of “Goblet of Fire,” a performance that was just this side and sometimes over it of bloodthirsty. Maybe he was already a vampire then. Pattinson is also very aware of how handsome he is, which allows him to play Edward with honesty and passion, when those certain moments come around where such qualities are called for; otherwise, he coasts brilliantly through with an aloof insouciance I find irresistible.

When Bella and Edward first meet each other at lunch in the school cafeteria still strangers there’s a stern burning moment during which they exchange admiring glances across crowded tables; she thinks she’s won because she doesn’t turn away fast enough after catching sight of his fangs; but then he transfixes her by”.

This film portrays human longing better than any since Coppola’s “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” maybe better than ever before. Kristen Stewart (Bella), on the other hand, does something every bit as difficult: She plays an ordinary teenage girl with such quiet dignity, such unassuming courage, such disinterested selflessness that I was almost able to bear looking at her directly. Almost.

Bella left her mom and stepdad in Arizona for the Pacific Northwest, but this is where normalcy ends. Her father is the chief of police for a small town with an Indian reservation on its outskirts; Bella’s new high school seems strangely glutted with national parks department employees; and there’s a seemingly incestuous local family that has bizarre physical characteristics. All the boys look at Bella as if she were a plate of biscuits. Especially Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), who really hates her. Or maybe he loves her, I forget.

Warning: This is extremely rated R. “Let the Right One In,” a Swedish import soon to be Hollywood-ized by Twilight, but for now making the rounds here and there across the country, is another teen vampire movie only better and more real. The vampire in this case is the girl who protects the boy and could never think of killing him. That’s how you can tell them apart boys and girls.

For more movies like Twilight Visit Gomovies.