"When you can live forever, what do you live for?" Not a bad tag line. Another that might work for Twilight is, "Just because a movie bursts with heart-thumping passion, is it really alive?"

Of course vampires such as the impressively-coiffed and ever-brooding Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) aren’t necessarily supposed to display a wide range of expressiveness. Reacting to internal drives and external prompts of the most basic kind (predator-prey relationships, tribalism), and partly avoiding emotions in order not to be tormented by them, vampires might seem like the perfect metaphor for adolescence. Indeed, that might be the best sign of author Stephenie Meyer’s brilliance—how she has taken the star-crossed angst that has long been part of teen vamp/human hook-ups (cf. The Lost Boys, Buffy and Angel) and ruthlessly foregrounded it.

In following suit, however, the film version of the first of her best-selling novels strips away most of the pleasures of the horror genre, so that in the end we’re left with an archetype out of water. There’s nothing remotely scary or even very threatening in Twilight, and talented director Catherine Hardwicke seems to know this, playing up the action-genre elements instead. The result, which the film seems to be somewhat self-conscious about, is a kind of superhero-romance a la the Spider-Man franchise, but minus the interesting adversaries and layered psychology of which those films are capable.

If one were cynical, one might cite Twilight’s action sequences as being a concession to the male demographic attending the film on date night, but if that’s the case, the producers have miscalculated wildly: in the screening that I attended in San Antonio, Texas, a basso grumbling issued through the theater as the closing credits started to play: "That’s it?" (The last time I heard that particular sound, although to be fair it was from all audience segments, was at The Golden Compass.) The action scenes, by the way, are a decidedly mixed bag. The highlights include some well-executed vehicular sequences and a stunning aerial shot that concludes an otherwise embarrassing scrambling-up-trees-with-my-beloved passage. The low points include a pseudo-comedic game of vampire baseball in which not even the pitcher’s wind-up is convincing.

But of course it’s not for such scenes that fans are lining up around the block to see this film, it’s for the romance. Leaving aside the fact that I’m not sure why a century-old vampire would find a soul-mate in a high school girl (Anne Rice at least lets her vampires age mentally and emotionally), the romantic elements themselves are largely well done. This is especially true in the early part of the film, with anti-hero Edward coming across as a present-day Heathcliff. The problem is that Bella, the female lead, never becomes Catherine: other than keeping her boyfriend’s secret life concealed from her police chief dad, which doesn’t seem too hard, there are very few difficult decisions that she’s forced to make, certainly none on which the drama itself appears to hinge in any meaningful way. Her high school buddies pretty much support her choice of boyfriend as does Edward’s vampire clan apart from some smoldering looks by one of his "foster sisters."

The drama in Twilight can be quite gripping; in this case, the protagonists are gripping tree branches. Photo credit: Deana Newcomb

All of this points to a far larger problem with the narrative, which is that it lacks a bigger picture against which the romance can play out, and therefore ends up heavy on tone and mood, and light on dramatic tension. To its credit, Twilight doesn’t rely on the clichéd moral conundrums of vampirism ("I want to be good, but my hunger won’t let me!"), but unfortunately has not found an adequate replacement strategy for them. The cops, or any other outside human agency, are not really a factor. And when a gang of thuggish boys threaten Bella, the scene’s flatness is in part due to how one-offish it feels. Indeed, the film’s would-be antagonists, a trio of vampire newcomers, appear fairly late in the scheme of things, and one of them even opts out of this role after only a couple of scenes. While this loose sense of dramatic conflict allows us some relaxed insight into the vampire world, and lets us spend more time with our two appealing leads (Kristen Stewart is quite good on the whole), it also creates the feeling that all of Twilight is little more than set-up for more compelling adventures down the road.

So if you’re up for that experience, perhaps because you’re one of the millions of dedicated fans of the novels, you probably won’t be too disappointed by Twilight. If, however, you’re looking for reasons to become a new fan of the franchise, it’s more likely than not that you’ll be left scratching your head a bit, wondering what all the fuss is about.


Edward (ROBERT PATTINSON) walks with Bella (KRISTEN STEWART) to the river’s edge... perhaps to discuss possible sequels.