Film review: Twilight is a story of forbidden love with a supernatural twist

Dec 24 2008 by Richard Evans, North Wales Weekly News

IF YOU are a teenage girl who listens to My Chemical Romance and has a penchant for pierced lips and eyeliner then you will probably love Twilight.

But what if you are a 31-year-old man who spends more time watching Sky Sports and drinking beer than cultivating the latest emo haircut or self-harming? Actually I was pleasantly surprised by Twilight – if you’ve not read the book or seen the hype the film tells the story of forbidden love, teenage angst and vampires.

I won’t ruin the plot for you by revealing every detail but the basic story goes – 17-year-old Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) moves away from her mum and step-father in Phoenix in Arizona to live with her police chief dad in the backwaters of Forks, Washington – one of the wettest towns in the US.

After trying her best to fit into her new school with her new friends, Bella finds she gets on best with a mysterious, dark and very pale-looking Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson), who at first seems repulsed by her very presence – I’ll let you work out the rest.

The metaphoric connotations you could draw from critical analysis into the parallels between vampiric tendencies, blood-lust and teenage sexual frustrations are as plain as Dracula disliking daylight – but amongst all the drawn-out, sometimes slow driven plot is Buffy the Vampire Slayer/Lost Boys dressed up as a slightly more adult Harry Potter movie.

I really enjoyed Twilight, it is a little long and a bit too slushy in parts, but if you stick with it the film improves and the slow pace just adds to the mystery – that said this could have been a much darker, more scary movie, but it is still well worth a visit to the cinema, whether you are a 15-year-old Goth or a 30-something office worker.

8/10