"Twilight" Movie Review

By Jennifer Paczewski, JRNL 305 Fall 2008

Stephanie Myer’s novel "Twilight" was published in 2005. Myer’s sequel "New Moon" was published in 2006, "Eclipse" came out in 2007, and "Breaking Dawn" was released in 2008. Myer’s first novel was made into a movie, which came out Nov. 21, 2008. The movie was directed by Catherine Hardwick, and the main characters Isabella “Bella” Swan and Edward Cullen are played by Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson. Charlie Swan, Bella’s father, is played by Billy Burke and Edward’s parents Esme and Carlisle are played by Elizabeth Reaser and Peter Facinelli.

"Twilight" tells the story of Bella Swan, who moves to Washington to live with her father after her mother, remarries a major league baseball player and the couple sets out to travel around the country. Originally, Bella is miserable in Washington, disliking the cold weather and regularly rainy weather. Her mood isn’t helped by the fact that a classmate and her lab partner, Edward Cullen, seems to hate her for reasons she doesn’t understand. Bella even catches Edward trying to transfer out of the biology class he is in with her. However, after Edward is absent for several days, he returns and apologizes to Bella for being rude. They begin a tentative kind of friendship, a friendship which solidifies when Edward saves Bella from being hit by a car in the school parking lot.

This accident alerts Bella to the fact that Edward is not quite normal, as he saved her by stopping the car and pushing it away with one hand, denting in the side of the car. Bella learns more about the odd nature of the Cullen family when her friend Jacob Black tells her of an Indian legend that pits werewolves and vampires as enemies, who have an uneasy truce. He says that this is the reason the reservation Indians don’t like the Cullens. Bella comes to realize that Edward and his family are vampires, and that she is falling in love with Edward. Bella and Edward’s relationship becomes more complicated when three vampires pass through their community, and one of the vampires, James, becomes fixated on Bella and begins to hunt her.

Kristen Stewart does well acting the role of a misfit, semi-rebellious teenager in "Twilight." Stewart has played similar parts in other films like Panic Room and Jumper. In Panic Room Stewart plays the teenage daughter of Jodi Foster, who buys a new house that features a panic room, a steel-walled room that is capable of locking in the residents and keeping out intruders. Foster and Stewart are threatened by two men who break into the house, looking for something the former resident is supposed to have hidden. In Jumper Stewart plays the love interest of David Rice, a young man who can teleport himself anywhere in the world.

Robert Pattinson plays a tortured soul who is torn between his desire to protect Bella and his view that he is a monster, because of his vampiric nature. This role of a gorgeous, valiant protector who thinks he’s “not the hero,” as he tells Bella, is somewhat but not very much of a departure from his previous role of Cedric Digory in "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" and "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire." Cedric Digory was also a strong, silent good guy who protected his fellow students. Cedric wasn’t the tortured soul that Edward is, but he is very much like Edward in all other respects.

Overall, the acting and story was highly dramatic. This is in keeping with the book, as it features the urgency and drama that young adults sometimes experience in and about relationships.

"Twilight" is likely to please teenage girls and young women, but the story’s focus on romance is likely to leave male viewers rolling their eyes.