The Twilight Saga: New Moon arrived in 2009 with a tagline that promised agony: “Forbidden to remember. Terrified to forget.” The film, directed by Chris Weitz from a screenplay by Melissa Rosenberg, runs 131 minutes and picks up in Forks, Washington, where Bella Swan is reeling from the departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen. She finds comfort in her friendship with Jacob Black, a werewolf, and is soon thrust into a centuries-old conflict.
That is the shape of it. What the film does with that shape is another matter, and it is the reason New Moon lands at 6 of 10.
Trailer, via The Twilight Saga.
Kristen Stewart Carries the First Act Alone
Stewart carries the opening stretch almost by herself. Bella’s grief is the engine here, and the film lets it run long and quiet. Weitz keeps the camera close on her, and the effect is a kind of held breath. It works, for a while.
The problem is that grief is not a plot. Edward leaves, and Bella grieves, and the film circles that fact without advancing it. The middle stretch sags under the weight of its own mood.
Taylor Lautner Is the Film’s Real Find
Lautner’s Jacob arrives as warmth and motion, a counterweight to Pattinson’s cold stillness. The friendship between Jacob and Bella is the most convincing relationship on screen.
The werewolf reveal gives the story its second gear. A centuries-old conflict opens up, and Bella’s desire to be with Edward at any cost pushes her to take greater and greater risks. That is the film’s best idea. It is also the one it trusts least.
Forbidden to remember. Terrified to forget.
Michael Sheen Arrives Too Late to Matter
Michael Sheen plays Aro with a relish that belongs to a better film, and Dakota Fanning’s Jane is a small, sharp shock. Ashley Greene’s Alice Cullen returns to the story with purpose.
But the threat they represent never lands. They are introduced, admired, and then the credits roll. A centuries-old conflict deserves more than a cameo.
Alexandre Desplat Scores a Soundtrack That Sits Inside the Film
The score is by Alexandre Desplat. The rest of the soundtrack was chosen by music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, who also produced the Twilight soundtrack and released this one on her Chop Shop label with Atlantic Records on October 16, 2009.
It is a strong record. The songs sit inside the film rather than on top of it, and Patsavas has an ear for the kind of track that makes a scene feel bigger than it is. This is craft, and it shows.
Rachelle Lefevre’s Victoria Has Nowhere to Go
The film’s central problem is that it is a bridge, and it knows it. New Moon exists to move Bella from Edward to Jacob and back again, and it performs that task without much interest in what the move costs her.
Rachelle Lefevre’s Victoria is a threat with no resolution. Billy Burke’s Charlie Swan is a father with no scene that matters. Peter Facinelli, Elizabeth Reaser, Jackson Rathbone and Kellan Lutz fill out the Cullen family in a film that has already sent them away.
The runtime is 131 minutes. It feels longer, and not because the film is dense. It feels longer because it repeats itself.
Lautner Decides the Franchise’s Next Step
New Moon is a better film than its reputation suggests and a worse film than its best scenes promise. Stewart and Lautner give it a pulse. Weitz gives it atmosphere. Rosenberg gives it a structure that cannot quite hold the weight of what it is carrying.
The tagline is the whole film in six words. Bella is forbidden to remember Edward and terrified to forget him, and New Moon spends its runtime watching her do both. That is a real idea. It is not, by itself, a movie.
What matters here is Lautner. The franchise’s future turns on whether Jacob can hold the screen against a vampire who is absent for most of the film, and Lautner answers that question. What is noise is the threat the film introduces and then forgets. The werewolf turn is the part worth watching. The rest is a bridge.
6 of 10.
The Numbers
- Title: The Twilight Saga: New Moon
- Year: 2009
- Director: Chris Weitz
- Writer: Melissa Rosenberg
- Runtime: 131 minutes
- Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Drama, Romance
- Tagline: “Forbidden to remember. Terrified to forget.”
- Score: 6.0/10 (audience score, 9901 votes)
- Soundtrack release: October 16, 2009, Chop Shop/Atlantic Records
- Score composer: Alexandre Desplat
- Music supervisor: Alexandra Patsavas
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