Twilight
Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Vampires are hot right now, and no one can capitalize off of them like Hollywood. As soon as the studios saw how many women were obsessed with Stephenie Meyer’s overly-romanticized, glittery, baseball-loving vampires from her Twilight book series, they didn’t waste any time snatching up the movie rights. Heck, they’d be stupid not to. Only someone living under a rock hasn’t at least heard about Twilight. As of August 2009, 70 million copies of the series had been sold worldwide with translations into at least 38 different languages (http://en.wikipedia.ort/wiki/Twilight_series). For those of you who haven’t read the books, high school junior, Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart), moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to spend more time with her father Charlie (Billy Burke) after her mother remarries. At Forks High School, Bella is paired up with the inhumanly beautiful Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), as her biology lab partner. At first, Edward seems to detest Bella’s very existence; but, after saving her from a freak accident, the fiery passion of hate turns into passionately misguided teenage love. Of course, it doesn’t take Bella long to figure out that Edward isn’t your typical male eye candy, especially after she witnesses him juggle a full size van in the school parking lot to keep her from getting squashed like a bug underneath it. When curiosity finally gets the best of her, Bella asks family friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner) about the elusive Cullens. Jacob fills her in on the local Quileute Indian legends, unwittingly violating a treaty made between his tribe and the Cullens in the process. Bella learns that Edward is a vampire, forever frozen at age 17.
Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures			At that point, the film veers wildly off course from the book. Director Catherine Hardwicke eliminated a lot of the romance and replaced it with an additional subplot surrounding the nomadic vampires to create more narrative tension. For the most part, it works. However, it also sacrifices the one element (romance) that drew so many readers to Meyer’s novel in the first place.
Yet, the biggest change Hardwicke made is also the most detrimental. She lifted most of the dialogue verbatim from the novel and moved it to different locations throughout the film. Hardwicke has stated in various interviews that she and screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg altered some of the narrative locations to avoid visual repetition. Yes, she has a point, but the way in which it was executed leaves the audience feeling disjointed. These pivotal conversations, now relocated, are fragmented and confusing because they’ve lost their original context. As far as the acting is concerned, Stewart and Pattinson definitely have onscreen chemistry, but Stewart’s performance leaves a lot to be desired. Yes, Bella is supposed to be clumsy and insecure, but Stewart can’t seem to pull it off without looking like a stammering idiot who has optic epilepsy. When placed opposite a more polished actor like Pattinson, it’s painfully obvious that Stewart is not ready for a role of this caliber, even with all of Pattinson’s overly-dramatic pauses (courtesy of Hardwicke’s lackluster direction). Will Meyer’s fans be disappointed with Hardwicke’s translation of Meyer’s novel? Probably, but they’ll still rush out to see the film as soon as it hits theaters. There’s enough of the story left intact for them to appreciate seeing Edward and Bella brought to life on the big screen. Unfortunately, to everyone else, the movie version of Twilight will probably leave them feeling as if a big piece of the puzzle is missing. Sadly, something is – an understanding of the characters and their motives. Ironically, the best remedy for that problem is to read both Twilight and Midnight Sun. Then, and only then, will Meyer’s fragmented story start to make sense.
Hardwicke definitely dropped the ball on this one. The film version of Twilight damn near crashed head-first into the realm of missed opportunities. I just hope that when New Moon comes out next year, the studio remembers that Meyer’s fans are looking for a faithful adaptation instead of just another formulaic, loose Hollywood interpretation of events. © Kelly Bartley 11/2008		Image courtesy of Paramount Pictures
Running Time:	120 minutes
Release Date:	November 21, 2008 (wide)
MPAA Rating:	PG-13 (violence, sensuality)
Distributor:	Paramount Pictures