Nov 28, 2008 - 04:30 AM

By John Foote

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Twilight

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke

in theatres

***

For hundreds of thousands of teenaged girls, the moment has come. Twilight has hit theatres and is on its way to being a blockbuster for upstart Summit Entertainment. Based on the beloved books by Stephanie Meyer, the film is the beginning of a franchise, as there are three more in the series (at this writing) dealing with an impossible love between a 17-year-old girl and a 107-year-old vampire who has been 17 for more than a century.

I read the book in three days, unable to put it down, somewhat shocked that I liked it so much. Meyer takes the vampire myth and turns it on its ear with several major changes, in some cases doing what Stephen King did for vampires in Salem's Lot, before the films ruined the book. Vampires in Twilight do not enter direct sunlight because it causes their bodies to twinkle like diamonds, they do not have fangs, they do not cower from crosses or garlic, nor do they sleep in coffins all day. They hunger for blood, but are able to survive on the blood of animals. They are pale white, impossibly beautiful, outrageously powerful, and co-exist with humans because it makes more sense. Of course there are rogue vampires who feast on human blood, and those types will play an important part in the film.

Bella (Kristen Stewart) is a typical teenager -- cynical about life and the world, understandably annoyed when her mother sends her from Arizona to upstate Washington, where the sun rarely shines and there is so little to do in the small town, it frightens her. She moves in with her dad, the town sheriff, a man she barely knows.

At school she meets Edward (Robert Pattinson) a beautiful young man who hangs out with his "family", a group of young people who look like they walked out of Vogue. They have little interaction with the regular kids. Bella starts thinking about Edward all the time, and unknown to her, he is doing the same, watching her at night as she sleeps. They fall in love, and she discovers his secret and the secret of his family -- they are vampires. Long ago, they made the decision to live with humans. When a rogue group of vampires finds them and realizes Bella is human, she becomes the target of the group's hunter, a vicious killer, James (Cam Gigandet) who hunts for sport and makes Bella his target.

I must say the book kept me on the edge of my seat for three days. The moment the rogue vampire sees Bella, the writer kicked her storytelling into high gear and the rest of the book flew by. That does not happen in the film. Oh, he is frightening, but not in the manner of the character in the book.

Overall, the film is a pretty decent adaptation of the book, though the special effects are cheesy and cheap looking, belonging more on Smallville than the big screen.

The performances are very good, beginning with Stewart who was so good last year in Sean Penn's Into the Wild (2007) as the flower child. She gives a nice edge to Bella. Equally good is Pattinson as Edward, lethal by nature but deeply in love. He is best known for his work in the last Harry Potter film, and has grown substantially as an actor since. His performance is key to the film, and he does excellent work.

So why not a rave review?

Catherine Hardwicke, the film's director, takes the edge off the story and focuses instead on the love affair, a doomed sort of Romeo and Juliet love that we have seen before. The two young actors bring nothing new to it. Hardwicke missed the boat here, making a film about forbidden love rather than a gothic horror story. Sadly there is a decided lack of horror in the film. Perhaps this was just a set-up for the rest of the books coming to the screen.

Judging by the weekend box office numbers, it does not matter what we critics think... it wasn't made for us, but the millions of fans of the book, of which I count myself one, thereby giving me the right to say, the film disappointed me.

John Foote, director of the Toronto Film School, is a nationally known film historian/critic and a Port Perry resident. Get more reviews at www.footeonfilm.com. Contact him at jfoote@IAOD.com.