Review: Twilight (2008)

Director: Catherine Hardwicke | 120 minutes | drama, adventure, romance, fantasy | Actors: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner, Billy Burke, Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Nikki Reed, Ashley Greene, Jackson Rathbone, Kellan Lutz, Cam Gigandet, Edi Gathegi, Rachelle Lefevre, Anna Kendrick, Christian Serratos, Michael Welch, Sarah Clarke, Justin Chon, Gil Birmingham, Solomon Trimble, Matt Bushell, José Zúñiga, Ned Bellamy, Gregory Tyree Boyce, Marissa Ghavami, Gavin Bristol, Sean McGrath, Alexander Mendeluk, Kenny New, Madison Riley, Robert Zorn, Hunter Jackson, Christopher McCafferty, Katie Powers

Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) gets along just fine with her mom Renee (Sarah Clarke) and her stepdad Phil (Matt Bushell), so when those two want to travel around for Phil’s career, she decides to make it easy for them. She moves in with her father Charlie (Billy Burke), leaving sunny Phoenix, Arizona, for the rainy town of Forks, where she hasn’t been since she was a little girl. Seeing her father and his friends again is pleasant. Her entrance to the new secondary school is also going better than expected and she soon makes friends.

Everything is fine until a group of girls and boys enter the school. They turn out to be the adoptive children of Dr. Carlisle Cullen (Peter Facinelli). The family is very private and, when Bella sets her eye on the insanely handsome Edward (Robert Pattinson), she is given the good-natured warning that she’d better let go of any thought of starting something with him right away. Chances of success are nil. Bella’s friends are proven right, and how. When Bella and Edward sit next to each other in biology class, he is just not openly rude to her. After class, she also witnesses how he tries hard to swap biology for another subject, all so as not to have to sit next to Bella.

Bella is angry and hurt and would like to let Edward know how she feels about him. But then she is almost run over and it is Edward who saves her by stopping the car with his bare hands, otherwise it would have been crushed to a pulp. It takes some thinking and research after that, but then she understands that he and his family are vampires. She knows she should be afraid of him, but she is deeply in love. It is a bit more complicated for Edward. He too is in love, but the smell of Bella’s blood is like an addictive drug that he can resist only with the greatest of effort. And he is not alone in this.

Contrary to what you’d expect from the description, ‘Twilight’ is not your average adolescent or vampire movie chock-full of cheap gimmicks and gore. It is the tastefully portrayed story about an impossible love between a girl and a vampire, admittedly a ‘vegetarian’ vampire who only consumes the blood of animals, but still. The images are nicely muted, a little surreal, and the make-up to make the kids Cullen and their parents look unreal, is gorgeous and definitely has the desired result. The scenario is also well put together. At the right moments something exciting or funny happens and the storyline is also perfectly fine.

Kristen Stewart plays the girl with the inscrutable character very well. Edward is fascinated by Bella because he can read the minds of everyone except hers. It is therefore a smart move to use a voice-over to allow the viewer to witness what is going on in her, so that you can identify with her. The attraction between the two protagonists is powerful, so that the idea of ​​an inescapable love between them can be felt well. And Robert Pattinson as a beautiful boy will undoubtedly make many girls ‘hearts beat faster and probably many boys’ hearts too.

‘Twilight’ is a tasteful film about the impossible love between a girl (beauty) and a vampire (beast) and their brave attempt to make that impossible love possible.