Twilight, based on
Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling novel, follows our protagonist Bella Swan
(Kristen Stewart) as she reluctantly moves from sunny Phoenix to rainy Forks,
to stay with her dad Charlie (Billy Burke). Bella begins at a new high school,
where she is befriended immediately by her classmates. Apart from Edward Cullen
(Robert Pattinson), who avoids her and acts belligerently toward her. Bella
becomes fascinated by Edward and his family, later Edward expresses a similar attraction
to Bella. However, Edward’s attraction is also partnered with a thirst for her
blood. The Cullens are vampires, although of the ‘vegetarian’ variety as they
only consume animal blood. Bella and Edward start up a romantic relationship, however,
Bella’s life is at risk when strange vampires start to hunt around Forks.
Twilight is very
faithful to the novel, too faithful. Stephenie Meyer has been lambasted for her
clunky and inept writing, which has carried over into the film mostly
unchallenged by screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg. The awful cryptic statements
are still there, ‘But what if I’m not the hero? What if I am the bad guy?’ Bella
and Edward make grand declarations of love to each other, when they are not
staring intensely into each other’s eyes, but Twilight only shows their developing romance through montages. A
montage of climbing trees and leaning against the branches like they are posing
for a magazine, another of them chatting whilst sat on Bella’s bed before
Edward watches her as she sleeps. Twilight
wouldn’t be Twilight if it didn’t
have the male characters vying for Bella’s attention, ‘You’re the new shiny
toy!’ Not the mention the problematic nature of Edward Cullen’s relationship
with Bella to put to mildly. Here is an incomplete list of Edward’s behaviour concerning
Bella: stalking, gas-lighting, controlling, breaking into her house to watch
her sleep without her knowledge. Let’s not get start on the dumb character
decisions and the stupidity of the plot; otherwise we will be here all day. Twilight is doomed from the start by the
text it is ‘adapting’, although it’s a no-win situation as any major adaptation
changes would have been meet with outrage by the hard-core Twilight fans. And they are the ones driving the box office sales.
At least director Catherine Hardwicke has a good
understanding of how teenagers feel and act. Hardwicke manages to capture the
awkwardness between Charlie and Bella adeptly, the hesitation as they try to
reconnect their familial ties after a long time apart. Twilight has some nice small moments scattered amongst the inanity
and the creepiness of the film. Bella clutches her cactus, her one memento of
Phoenix, as she arrives back in Forks. A small waltz in Edward’s bedroom brings
our lovers closer physically than they have ever been before. Elliot Davis’s
cinematography relies on grey washed out tones to convey the perpetual dampness
of Forks; the only other colours that barely stand out are blues and reds. As
Bella and Edward’s romance begins, the camera begins to tilt and swoop dramatically,
to ram it into our skulls that this is a heady ‘romance’. Considering the
limitations of their characters, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson make a valiant
effort to try to convey their infatuation with each other. They both start with
closed-off physicality before slowly opening up to each with some reservations.
Stewart is clearly trying her hardest and struggles to bring Bella to life, acting
reserved and speaking with a halting inflection. Pattinson appears on-screen as
though he is already embarrassed to be in Twilight,
but he manages to convey an intensity in Edward even if it mainly manifests
itself in staring.
Unless you want to stare at Kristen Stewart and Robert
Pattinson staring at each other, Twilight
probably has little to offer you except endless amounts of stupidity.
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