Dating a vampire is an experience fraught with problems. Just imagine that awkward first visit to his house to meet his parents. Are they going to serve up a delicious dinner to warmly welcome you as a new member of the family, or are you going to be the dinner?
This is just one of the understandable concerns facing 17 year old Bella Swan (the delicious Kirsten Stewart) in TWILIGHT, a surprisingly serious and adult twist on the well-worn vampire theme.
As the new girl in school in the small town of Forks in Washington State, Bella is attracting plenty of attention from the boys. But she finds herself irresistibly drawn to the only one who ignores her.
The handsome but strangely pale Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) has eyebrows so impressive they deserve to have their credit in the film's opening titles. With his ice-cold skin, red rimmed eyes, superhuman strength and speed, and an aversion to direct sunlight, he's also quite obviously a vampire, although it takes Bella almost a third of the movie to figure this out.
By then it's too late to back out. She's hopelessly in love with him and her ardour isn't dampened by his frank admission that he's fantasised about tasting her blood.
Luckily Edward and his large family of fellow vampires are what they call "vegetarians." They've trained themselves to drink only the blood of animals although it can still be a struggle to resist the old urges when someone as fragrant and appealing as Bella insists on ignoring all their warnings.
While TWILIGHT avoids the camp gothic theatricality of many previous vampire films it's not without a fair amount of humour. Much of it comes out in the conversations between Bella and Edward as she asks those questions we'd want to know the answers to when confronted with a vampire who's not trying to gnaw on our neck.
The result is an interesting combination of teen drama and thriller with just a smattering of horror. The concept of committing oneself unconditionally to a partner despite knowing they're fighting a constant internal battle with the urge to kill you is scary enough without the need for coffins, bats, and stakes through the heart.
Bella and Edward's unconventional love story more than off-sets the tired subplot of Bella the outsider at a new school wrestling with the dilemma of whether to go to the prom. During these scenes my mind kept wandering back to "Pretty in Pink" which for me is the definitive text on the subject.
TWILIGHT rapidly developed a huge female following on its cinema release largely it appears on the basis of the "dreamy" Mr Pattinson and his spectacular eyebrows but it's unfair to pigeonhole the film as a chickflick or teen drama. This story will appeal to anyone who enjoys the nostalgic tingle of remembering the excitement, fear and uncertainty of first love.
TWILIGHT is neither great art nor a particularly great movie. A formulaic third act reveals a story rapidly running out of original ideas but it is nevertheless an entertaining and stylish piece of work with relatively new faces Stewart and Pattinson making a convincing couple.
But I'm not convinced that TWILIGHT will stand up to repeated viewings. Just like first love the magic happens only once. This is a film to rent or borrow not buy.
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