Well, this week I won the most amazing film auction ever--I get to go, for a year, to movies with Colin Covert, the Minneapolis Star Tribune's best movie reviewer, at least in this humble film fan's opinion. I take his word very seriously when I'm considering spending $10 on a film.
Tonight, I went to my first film. Twilight. Mostly, I was curious to see what it was like to see a film when a reviewer gets to see a film. Turns out this viewing wasn't anything I'd not done before myself. The studio comes in and gives free tickets to places that market to their demographic audience. Once, I got free tickets this way to see the film The Ballad of Little Jo (which I loved but which few people seem to have seen).
The audience could have been going to a cast call for freshmen girls in High School Musical IV (I don't think I saw any boys, and yes I know there is no HSM IV...yet), and had gotten their tickets from local radio stations. A few of the youngest came with their parents, but most came by themselves. DJs well known to that demographic threw stuff at us (like t-shirts, keychains and can insulators) before the movie started.
I knew only that the movie Twilight was causing swooning teen girls to pass out when they went to a mall to see the leading actor. And that it was about vampires.
Unfortunately, that about sums up my experience of Twilight. When the lead actor appeared on screen tonight, you could hear a collective sigh of immense pleasure from the audience. After the film, someone approached Colin and told him he thought it was a repeat of "Beauty and the Beast" but with vampires. I don't think the plot line matches, but the feeling matches. Imagine a young woman who doesn't seem to need to be saved, but who really does need to be saved, falling in love with a man who wants to drink her blood, but does the right thing by her and holds off. (This rings familiar to me...why is this story of a man with uncontrollable urges managing to hold off in order to protect a woman so powerful in our culture and with our young girls?)
As a film, the cinematography is at first striking, but unvaried and therefore gets old, the acting is flat (I ended up liking the father character, though--he shined despite the dialog), some of the dialogue evoked eye rolls, and it ran on just a little too long.
Your teen girls, be they shy, sporty, preppy or emo, will probably love this film and want to see it over and over and over again.
I, for one, can't wait to see Octavia Butler's vampire novel Fledgling be made into a movie one day (is my Fairy Godmother listening?).
If you share my tastes, I rate it: I Want Those Two Hours of My Life Back (which equates into 1/5 stars if you must). It might be Worth Renting if you want to bond with your tweenager at home (so she won't be embarrassed by your reactions).
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