Twilight (Lydia's response)

(Edward and Bella try very hard not to make out)

First, I would like to get out of the way some of my political response to this movie:

1. Twilight should be part of an abstinence-only sex ed
curriculum. Again and again, the following message is reiterated: if you lose control of your natural desires, if you pursue the pleasure you want for even a second, you will quite literally die a horrible death.

2. It is a textbook abusive relationship:

• Bella overlooks Edward's bad behavior because she loves him so much.
• Only she can see how beautiful he really is (because he only shows his glitter-paint on the top of the mountain to her).
• He isolates her from her family (and says it's best for them if she ends her relationship through painful lies).
• He blames her (and her attractiveness, and how much he loves her) for his desire to physically assault her.
• He shyly admits that he's been sneaking into her room because he likes to watch her sleep. In real life, this sort of behavior is categorically NOT cute or endearing.
• When she says she's not afraid of him he replies "You shouldn't have said that" and proceeds to do his best to scare the shit out of her. How sweet.

Deep breath. So Twilight might be a dangerous film, because it enforces some really terrible lessons about humans in relationships with each other, but I would not quite say it's a bad film. There's an undeniable authenticity about the teen drama of this movie that I love. (Undeniable because, for one thing: look at the box office. Something about this movie--and the books it is based on--succeeds with teenage girls).

If you look at Catherine Hardwicke's career, you will notice that directing is not her biggest credit. She has been production designer on about three times as many films as she has directed. Look at what CH has directed though: the powerful and hard to watch Thirteen, which she co-wrote with then-thirteen-year-old actress Nikki Reed who plays (unfortunately few scenes as) this bitchy/hungry vampire in Twilight. Between Thirteen and Twilight, Hardwicke directed two other teen movies I have not seen, with two other, very different stories of teen life: The Lords of Dogtown, which is about California surf culture in the 70s, and The Nativity Story, which is...the nativity story. (I did not see this movie, and now I kind of want to. I think the only reason I remember it at all is because there was some understated controversy around the fact that Keisha Castle-Hughes -- you remember her from Whale Rider -- was herself a pregnant unmarried teen during the time she played pregnant unmarried teen Mary. Irony? Or something...?)

Twilight captures a sort of absurd, sincere emotion that exists only in impossibly intense teen relationships. The endless gray background, the modest overacting, and the simplicity of the characters all contribute to this honest excess. Kristen Stewart's performance comprises mostly earnest lip-biting and sullen-but-mature voice over narration, while Robert Pattinson as Edward reminds me a little of Danny Zuko, asserting his masculinity with every swaggering step. The supporting characters, while they lack dimension I suppose, refreshingly refuse to conform exactly to the age old dichotomies of high school life: nerd vs jock, rebel vs princess. I give Twilight credit for surrounding Bella with a group of friends each of whom is some degree of nerdy, athletic, clever, likable and self-possessed.

I love the way symbolism is slathered all over the surface of this movie. There is nothing subtle about Twilight (just as there is nothing subtle about being seventeen and hopelessly and tragically in love in ways no one else could possibly understand). Bella's first interaction with Edward takes place in front of a convenient fan, a fan that blows her hair back as if she were in a music video. In much of this scene, Edward's face is perfectly framed by the outstretched wings of a stuffed owl: cherubic and nocturnal.

I have only read the first twenty pages of the Stephanie Meyers novel on which Twilight is based; it is exactly the sort of book (best-selling, plot-driven and extremely long) I tend to avoid for fear of having to explain why I hated it to likable smart fun people who loved it. But actually, from the beginning of the book, I suspect Twilight may prove to be an exception. Maybe the first person narrative justifies the sloppy writing in this case? Bella lacks self-awareness and while this is probably not craft (a couple of interviews have convinced me that S Meyers lacks any pretense of being interested in, you know, words or whatever), but it works. Sure, I am disappointed that Meyers (like JK Rowling) achieves celebrity while Jaclyn Moriarity remains unheard of, even among avid kidlit readers, but it is unfair to judge a work by what it is not.

p.s. I enlightened a lot of people by making (less elegantly) this connection after (okay, and during) the movie. I love the internet!