Twilight wants to be a love story about a girl who falls for a vampire. Instead it mostly settles for being a movie about a girl who stares at a boy while he explains why he doesn’t want to hurt her. The 2008 film opens with Bella Swan moving to Forks, Washington, to live with her father after her mother remarries. There she meets Edward Cullen, a mysterious classmate who moves through life as though he were made of stone. He is a vampire, and he has spent a century holding back his hunger around humans. She is human, and she has fallen in love with him anyway.
Trailer, via The Twilight Saga.
Forks and the Cullens
The town of Forks is gray and wet, and the film spends a lot of time showing it. Twilight is at its best when it slows down to let the characters breathe. Bella’s conversations with her new friends, particularly Angela Weber and Jessica Stanley, give the film some warmth. The scene where Bella and Edward dance at the prom is a quiet moment that lands well, because it lets the actors play off each other without having to say much at all.
The problem starts when the film decides to explain everything. Edward tells Bella about his kind in long, heavy-handed scenes that feel more like a lecture than a conversation. The history of vampires, the rules that govern them, and the danger they face from other supernatural creatures — all of it gets spelled out in a way that drains the mystery from the central relationship.
The Romance Stalls
The romance itself is the engine of the film, and it stalls early. Bella and Edward barely get to be together on screen, spending most of their time apart. Bella watches Edward from a distance, and Edward watches Bella from a distance, and the film does little to make that connection feel urgent. The tension comes less from the threat of the Volturi and more from the simple fact that the couple cannot touch.
There are moments of genuine feeling buried under the exposition, but they get lost in the sprawl of the plot. The film runs nearly two and a half hours, and it feels longer than that. Scenes stretch past their welcome, and the pacing sags in the middle.
What Works
- The performances from Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson carry the film when the script lets them. Their chemistry is real, even when the dialogue is not.
- The cinematography captures the rain-soaked beauty of Forks in a way that feels authentic.
- The music score, by Carter Burwell, adds mood without overpowering the action.
- The supporting cast, led by Billy Burke as Charlie Swan and Peter Facinelli as Emmett Cullen, give the film a sense of family that grounds the fantasy.
These elements work together to create a film that is intermittently engaging. They are enough to keep viewers interested during the quieter stretches, but they are not enough to rescue the film from its structural problems.
The Verdict
Twilight is a film that knows how to set a scene but struggles to build one. The romance is a slow burn that never quite catches fire, and the world of the vampires is explained so thoroughly that there is little left to wonder about. The film is at its best in its quieter, character-driven moments, and at its worst in its longer, more explanatory ones.
